Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Asceticism & Spirituality; John of Kronstadt; My Life in Christ; Orthodox spiritual diary; eucharistic realism; prayer and repentance; the Divine Liturgy; Russian Orthodox spirituality; Religion & Spirituality; Christianity / Orthodox; Christian Living / Spiritual Growth
Description: The masterwork of Saint John of Kronstadt — close to seven hundred reflections gleaned from the diaries of a priest who stood at the altar every day of his life. Prayer, repentance, the nearness of God, and the war with the passions run through its pages, and at their centre burns the Eucharist: the daily miracle in which the bread and wine are transformed into the very Body and Blood of the Lord. It is the Christian life itself, caught in the act.

My Life in Christ

John of Kronstadt

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The modern English translation and the cover design are © 2026 Royal Archives. All rights reserved.

The underlying source text is in the public domain.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Royal Archives

Source: Моя жизнь во Христе (azbyka.ru; from the pre-revolutionary Russian edition of St John of Kronstadt’s diaries)

Cover: The Agony in the Garden by Wilhelm Kotarbiński (Polish-Russian, 1848–1921), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:moja_gizn_vo_hriste:en:1

Introduction

The Author

Ivan Ilyich Sergiev—the priest the whole of Russia came to know simply as Father John of Kronstadt—was born on the nineteenth of October 1829 (by the old calendar) in the far northern village of Sura, in the Pinega district of Arkhangelsk province. His people were poor and pious; his father served as a village sacristan, and the boy grew up close to the ground, to the church, and to hardship. He was a slow starter at his letters, a fact he never hid in later life, and something of the wonder of a child who had to pray for the gift of reading stayed with him. From the parish school he passed to the seminary at Arkhangelsk, and from there to the Theological Academy in Saint Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1855.

At the Academy he had dreamed for a time of the mission field, of carrying the Gospel to the peoples of Siberia or the Far East. What he found instead was that the mission field lay at home. On graduating he married Elizabeth, the daughter of an archpriest attached to Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in the naval town of Kronstadt, the island fortress guarding the sea approach to the capital, and in 1855 he was ordained priest and assigned to that cathedral. There he would remain for more than half a century, until his death. His marriage was, by mutual understanding, never consummated; he and his wife lived as brother and sister, and he gave himself wholly to his parish and his prayer.

Kronstadt in those years was a place of exiles, laborers, and the destitute—men and women swept to the edges of the empire and left there. Father John went among them when other clergy would not, into the cellars and slums, giving away his stipend, his coat, sometimes the boots off his feet, until his wife had to appeal to the diocese to have his salary paid to her directly so the household could survive. Out of this daily descent into poverty grew his great charitable foundation, the House of Industry, opened in Kronstadt in 1882—not an almshouse but a small city of mercy, gathering under one roof a workshop, a school, an orphanage, a dispensary, a shelter, and a church, so that the poor might be given work and dignity and not merely bread.

But it was as a man of prayer that he became famous, and then beloved, across the whole of Russia. He celebrated the Divine Liturgy every day, and pressed upon his people a practice that had nearly vanished from Russian church life—frequent confession and frequent Communion, at a time when once or twice a year was the custom. The crowds that pressed to confess to him grew so vast that he was driven to a general, aloud confession of thousands at once, a thing unheard of before him. He became known as a healer; the sick were brought to him from across the empire, and letters and telegrams begging his prayers arrived by the sackful. In 1894 he was summoned to the deathbed of the Emperor Alexander III. By the end of his life he was perhaps the most widely venerated figure in the Russian Church.

He reposed at Kronstadt on the twentieth of December 1908 (the second of January 1909 by the modern calendar), and was buried at the convent he had founded on the Karpovka in Saint Petersburg. His veneration only deepened after his death. He was glorified as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1964, and by the Moscow Patriarchate on the eighth of June 1990; he is commemorated on the day of his repose, the twentieth of December, and again on the nineteenth of October, the day of his birth. The Church receives him as Saint John of Kronstadt, the righteous pastor, and it is under that name that this book comes to the reader.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

My Life in Christ was never planned as a book. It is the harvest of a diary. Through the long decades of his priesthood Father John kept a private journal, setting down whatever came to him in prayer, at the altar, in the confessional, or in the sleepless hours—a rush of insight, a stab of self-reproach, a sudden opening onto a verse of Scripture, a petition breaking out mid-sentence. He wrote, in the first place, only to keep his own account with God: to catch the movements of grace before they faded, to arraign his own heart, to fix in words what he had glimpsed. The entries were not composed for an audience and bear no trace of the pulpit. They are thought overheard.

Only later, and with some reluctance on his part, were these notebooks gathered and published. The full title under which they appeared announces exactly what they are: My Life in Christ, or Moments of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of Earnest Self-Amendment and Peace in God—Extracts from the Diary. The word “extracts” is honest. What the reader holds is a selection from a far larger private record, and the pieces stand in no strict order. There is no argument to follow from first page to last, no system being built. There is instead a mind and a heart at prayer, returning again and again to the same few burning questions.

The occasion of the book, then, is simply the interior life of a working parish priest—but a priest of unusual intensity, standing at the altar every day for over fifty years, and writing from within that experience rather than about it. This gives the book its particular authority. It is not a treatise on the spiritual life assembled by a theologian at his desk; it is a firsthand report from a man in the thick of the very things he describes. When he writes of the nearness of God, of the assaults of the enemy, of the sweetness that follows repentance, or of what happens at the moment of Communion, he is describing what he has just lived. That immediacy is the whole point of the book, and the reason it has never gone stale.

Within Father John’s body of work—sermons, catechetical talks, shorter devotional pieces — My Life in Christ stands as the masterwork, the book on which his reputation as a spiritual writer chiefly rests. It is the fullest and most unguarded self-portrait he left, and the surest way into his mind.

Argument and Structure

Because the book grew from a diary, its “structure” is the structure of a life rather than of a plan. In this edition it falls into two large parts, corresponding to the two volumes of the pre-revolutionary Russian edition from which it is drawn, and it comprises close to seven hundred numbered reflections—three hundred in the first part, and the remainder in the second. The numbering is the book’s only scaffolding. The reflections themselves range in length from a single luminous sentence to a page-long meditation, and they move without transition from one subject to the next, exactly as the thoughts came.

What holds the book together is not sequence but recurrence. A handful of themes surface, submerge, and surface again, so that the reader who stays with the book finds the same great matters approached from a hundred angles. Chief among them is prayer—its labor, its dryness, its warmth, the discipline of gathering a wandering heart back to God, the conviction that in prayer we stand in the immediate presence of the One who reads every thought. Close beside it stands repentance: the unsparing examination of one’s own heart, the naming of its impurities, the tears that clear the way for grace, and the peace that floods in behind them. These two—prayer and repentance—are the pulse of the book.

A second cluster of themes concerns the nearness and reality of God. Father John writes constantly of God as a living presence pressing upon the soul from every side, closer than one’s own breath; he speaks of the Holy Spirit as the very air the soul breathes, without which it suffocates. He is preoccupied with the power of the word—the human word that outlives the one who spoke it, and above all the Word of God, in which, he says, we behold God face to face and ourselves as we truly are. Against this presence he sets, with equal vividness, the reality of the adversary: the deceits of the enemy, the sudden coldness and constriction of the heart under temptation, the malice that must be let die if the soul is to draw near the altar of the God of love.

And at the living center of the book stands the Eucharist. Again and again Father John returns to the Divine Liturgy and the Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, which he celebrated daily and from which he drew the whole of his strength. He writes of Communion as a live coal laid upon the one who receives it, as the food that is Christ’s own Flesh and Blood, as the daily miracle in which the bread and wine are made the Body and Blood of the Lord. This is not one theme among others; it is the fire at which all the rest is warmed. The reader who wishes to understand what animated this man need only watch how often, and with what awe, the reflections circle back to the altar.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The significance of My Life in Christ lies less in any single doctrine it advances than in the kind of witness it bears. It belongs to a rare class of Christian writing—the spiritual journal not composed for publication—in which we are given not the conclusions of the interior life but the process of it. Its nearest kin are the confessional and contemplative writings in which a believer records the actual traffic between the soul and God. What Father John adds to that tradition is the vantage of a man who lived his whole adult life at the altar, and who therefore writes of the sacramental life not as an observer but as one immersed in it to the last fiber.

Its most concentrated contribution is its witness to the reality of the Eucharist. Father John gives the ancient conviction that Christ is truly present in the Holy Gifts one of its most vivid and experiential modern statements. He does not argue the doctrine; he reports it as lived fact, describing the transformation of the bread and wine, the priest as no more than an instrument in hands not his own, and the renewal he felt coursing through him each time he communicated. For any reader across the Christian traditions who has pondered the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, this is testimony of a rare directness—the account of a man for whom the Eucharist was not a theological topic but the daily source of his life.

Equally striking is the book’s relentless spiritual realism. Father John never sentimentalizes the inner life. He is candid about coldness in prayer, about the heart that honors God with the lips while wandering far away, about the swift descent of despair when Christ is out of view and the quickness with which malice can take root. He treats sin as a genuine death of the soul and repentance as a genuine resurrection, and he refuses every easy comfort that would soften either. This unflinching honesty about the self is bracing in any age, and it accounts for much of the book’s staying power: readers recognize their own struggles described without flattery and without despair.

Finally, the book is a school of the presence of God. Its deepest and most repeated counsel is to walk always in the awareness that God is here—that we think only because there is a boundless Thought, that we live only because the Spirit breathes in us, that every bright thought and every good word comes to us from beyond ourselves. To read the book slowly is to be trained in that attentiveness. It engages no controversy and settles no dispute; its aim is simpler and harder, to teach the reader to pray, to repent, and to live consciously before the face of God.

Reception and Influence

Few modern works of Christian spirituality have been read as widely as My Life in Christ. In Russia it went through edition after edition in Father John’s own lifetime and became a household book, and it passed early into English: the first translation, by E. E. Goulaeff—a Russian naval architect working in Britain—was published in London in 1897, made from the fourth and enlarged Russian edition. Subsequent English editors abridged and rearranged the text, supplying the topical headings under which many later readers came to know it, and the book found its way to a readership far beyond the Orthodox world. The Russian scholar G. P. Fedotov, surveying a millennium of his people’s spirituality, singled the diary out as the heart of Father John’s legacy, describing it as a great number of brief entries on a variety of subjects, set down in no particular order.

Within the Orthodox Church the book’s authority was sealed by the Church’s reception of its author as a saint, and it has fed generations of readers as a manual of the interior life—quoted in sermons, mined for the daily struggle, set beside the older ascetic classics. Beyond that world it has drawn readers of many traditions to whom Father John’s directness, his eucharistic devotion, and his psychological honesty speak across confessional lines. More than a century after his death the book remains in print in several languages and continues to be freshly translated and reissued, a sign that its appeal has never rested on novelty but on the enduring recognizability of the life it records.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents My Life in Christ in a fresh modern English translation made directly from the Russian. The base text is the public-domain pre-revolutionary Russian edition of Father John’s diaries as preserved and made available through the digital library at azbyka.ru; the two parts of this edition correspond to the two volumes of that source. The translation was rendered from that Russian throughout, not adapted from any earlier English version, so that the reflections reach the reader in contemporary, readable English while keeping the plainness and force of Father John’s own voice.

A word on the translation of Scripture is in order, because it matters to the texture of the book. Father John quotes and alludes to the Bible constantly, most often from the Church Slavonic he prayed and served in, weaving it into his own sentences. In this edition those quotations have been rendered afresh from his own wording rather than replaced with the phrasing of any standard English Bible, so that the Scripture reads as he heard and used it, seamlessly with the reflections it feeds. The eucharistic passages that lie at the heart of the book—his witness to the transformation of the Gifts and to Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ—have been preserved carefully and in full.

The edition follows the house conventions used throughout this series. The author is named as the Church has always received him, Saint John of Kronstadt, with his priestly and saintly titles given as plain biographical fact. Those who carried the work into English are credited as translators, never as authors. The reflections are presented in their received numbering, and the older, more archaic devotional phrasing—the “Thee” and “Thou” of the prayers—has been brought into modern English so that the book may be read without a barrier of antique diction. The intent throughout has been faithfulness of substance joined to ease of reading: to let a modern reader hear, as nearly as translation allows, what Father John set down in his diary a century and more ago.

Suggestions for Reading

My Life in Christ is not a book to be read straight through against the clock, though it can be. It rewards a slower use. Because the reflections are self-contained and unordered, the book can be opened almost anywhere and read a few entries at a time—a page in the morning, a page at night—and it was, after all, written that way, a little at a time. Many readers keep it near at hand precisely for this, dipping in when they need a word.

Two cautions may help the newcomer. First, do not look for a developing argument; look instead for the recurring themes, and let the repetition do its work, since it is by returning to prayer, repentance, and the presence of God from many angles that the book teaches. Second, remember that these were private notes, sharp and unguarded; some entries are severe, some tender, some cryptic, and not every one will speak on a given day. Read for the ones that do. Above all, the book is best read as it was written—prayerfully, with the willingness to let its author’s questions become one’s own.

Part One

Part One §1-40

1. You have abundantly revealed to me, O Lord, Your truth and Your righteousness. Through educating me in the sciences, You have revealed to me all the wealth of faith, of nature, and of human reason. I have come to know Your word—the word of love, “which penetrates to the division of soul and spirit” in us (Hebr 4:12); I have studied the laws of human understanding and its wisdom, the structure and beauty of language; I have penetrated in part the mysteries of nature, its laws, the depths of creation and the laws governing the universe; I know the populated lands of the earth, I have learned of individual nations, of famous persons and their deeds, which have passed in succession through the world; in part I have come to know the great science of self-knowledge and of drawing near to You; in short—I have learned much, very much—so that “marvelous are Your deeds, and most wonderful things have been revealed” to me (Sir 3:23); and even now I continue to learn much. I have many books of diverse content, and I read and reread them; yet I am still not satisfied. My spirit still thirsts for knowledge; my whole heart is not content, not sated, and from all the learning acquired by my mind I cannot obtain complete blessedness. When will it be satisfied?—“I shall be satisfied when Your glory is revealed” (Ps 16:15). Until then I shall not be satisfied. “He who drinks from this water” (from worldly knowledge) “will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:13-14), the Savior said.

2. How is it that the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let us make a comparison. Suppose you were transported to the sun and united with it. The sun illuminates with its rays the entire earth, each grain of sand on earth. In these rays you would also see the earth; but you would be so small in relation to the sun that you would constitute only as it were one ray, yet the sun contains infinitely many such rays. By virtue of unity with the sun, this one ray participates closely in the sun’s illumination of the entire world. So too a holy soul, united with God as with a spiritual sun, sees through the mediation of its spiritual sun, which illuminates the entire universe, all people and the needs of those who pray.

3. Have you learned to foresee the Lord before you always—as the omnipresent Mind, as the living and effective Word, as the life-giving Spirit? Holy Scripture—behold the realm of Mind, Word, and Spirit—God the Trinity: in it He is manifested clearly: “the words I speak to you—they are spirit and they are life” (Jn 6:63), said the Lord; the writings of the holy fathers—again they are the expression of the hypostatic Thought, Word, and Spirit, with much greater participation of the human spirit itself; the writings of ordinary secular people—behold the manifestation of the fallen human spirit, with its sinful attachments, habits, and passions. In the Word of God we behold God face to face—and ourselves as we truly are. Know yourselves then in it, O people, and walk always in the presence of God.

4. A human being, as you yourselves see, does not die in his word; he is immortal in it and speaks even after death. I will die, but even after death I will speak. How much of this immortal word exists among people—left behind long ago by those who died ages past, yet living on the lips even of entire peoples! How living is the word, even human speech! How much more the Word of God: it will outlive all ages and will forever be living and effectual.

5. Since God is the creative, living, and life-giving Thought, those sin grievously who turn their minds from this hypostatic Thought and occupy themselves only with material, corruptible things, thus materializing their own spirits; especially sinful are those who during Divine Liturgy or private prayer turn their thoughts entirely away and wander to various places outside the temple. They grievously offend the Godhead, to whom our thought must be fastened.

6. Where do fasting and repentance lead? For what reason is such labor? They lead to the purification of sins, to peace of soul, to union with God, to sonship, to boldness before the Lord. There is every reason to fast and to confess with all our hearts. The reward will be beyond measure for such faithful labor. How many of us possess the feeling of filial love toward God? How many of us dare with boldness, without self-judgment, to call upon the heavenly God the Father and say: Our Father!… Is it not rather that in our hearts such filial voice is not heard at all, drowned out by the vanity of this world or by attachment to its things and pleasures? Is not the heavenly Father far from our hearts? Must we not regard Him as God the avenger—we who have departed from Him to a far country? Yes, by our sins we all deserve His righteous wrath and punishment, and it is marvelous how much He bears with us, how He does not cut us down like barren fig trees. Let us hasten to appease Him through repentance and tears. Let us enter into ourselves with utmost rigor and examine our unclean heart, and see what a multitude of impurities block the access of divine grace to it; let us acknowledge that we are spiritually dead.

7. The Lord who loves is here: how then can I permit even a shadow of malice to enter my heart? Let all malice die completely in me; let my heart be anointed with the fragrance of non-malice. The love of God conquers you, evil Satan, who stirs us wicked ones toward malice. Malice is utterly deadly to soul and body: it burns, weighs down, torments. Let no one bound by malice dare approach the throne of the God of love.

8. When praying, we must by all means gain mastery over our heart and turn it toward the Lord. It must not be cold, deceitful, faithless, or double-minded. Otherwise, what benefit is our prayer, our confession? Will it not be grievous to hear from the Lord an angry voice: “these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Mt 15:8). So let us not stand in church with a relaxed soul, but let each burn with his own spirit, serving the Lord. And people do not value highly the services we render with coldness, from mere habit. But God desires precisely our heart. “My son, give me your heart” (Prov 23:26); because the heart is the chief thing in man, his life; rather, our heart is the very man himself. Therefore, whoever does not pray or does not serve God with his heart—it is as though he does not pray at all, because then his body alone prays, which without the soul is the same as earth. Remember that standing in prayer you stand before God, who knows the thoughts of all. Therefore your prayer must be, so to speak, all spirit, all mind.

9. The saints of God live even after death. I often hear in church how the Mother of God sings her wondrous song that touches the heart—which she composed in the house of her aunt Elizabeth, after the announcement of the Archangel. I hear the song of Moses, the song of Zacharias—father of the Forerunner, of Anna—mother of the prophet Samuel, the song of the three youths, the song of Miriam. And how many New Testament holy singers delight the ears of the entire Church of God even to this day! And the Divine Liturgy? And the Mysteries? And the rites? Whose spirit moves and touches our hearts there?—The Spirit of God and His saints. Behold the proof of the immortality of the human soul. How these people died and even after death govern our lives; they died and still speak, teaching, building up, and moving us!

10. As breath is necessary for the body, and without breath a man cannot live, so without the breath of God’s Spirit the soul cannot live in true life. What air is to the body, the Spirit of God is to the soul. Air is in a certain way an image of God’s Spirit. “The Spirit breathes where it wills” (Jn 3:8).

11. When you face temptation to sin, imagine vividly that sin greatly angers the Lord, who hates lawlessness. “You are not a God who delights in wickedness” (Ps 5:5). And to help you understand this better, imagine a truthful, strict father who loves his family, who uses every means to make his children righteous and honorable so that for their righteousness he can reward them with great wealth that he has prepared for them with great effort; and yet he sees to his grief that his children do not love him for such love, do not heed the inheritance prepared by his love, live recklessly, are hurrying swiftly toward destruction. Mark this: each sin is death to the soul (Jac 1 and others), because it kills the soul, because it makes us slaves of the devil, the murderer of men, and the more we serve sin, the more difficult our conversion becomes, the more certain our ruin. Therefore fear with all your heart every sin.

12. When your heart sways in the thought of deceit and the deceiver, as it is said, begins to undermine your heart to move it completely from the rock of faith, then say to yourself inwardly: I know my spiritual poverty, my nothingness without faith; say: I am so weak that by the name of Christ alone I live and find rest and rejoice, my heart expands, but without Him I am spiritually dead, I am anxious, my heart is confined; without the cross of the Lord I would long ago have been the victim of the most bitter sorrow and despair. Christ holds me in life; the cross is my rest and my consolation.

13. We can think only because there is a boundless Thought, just as we breathe because there is boundlessness in space. This is why bright thoughts about any subject are called inspiration. Our thought flows constantly under the condition of the existence of an infinite thinking Spirit. This is why the Apostles say: “we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2Cor 3:5). This is why the Savior says: “do not be anxious about how or what you will speak, for what you are to say will be given to you” (Mt 10:19). You see, both thought and even the word itself (inspiration) come to us from without. This is true in the state of grace and in times of need. But even in our ordinary condition, all bright thoughts come from our guardian angel and from God’s Spirit; whereas, conversely, unclean and dark thoughts come from our damaged nature and from the devil, who is always at hand. How then must a Christian conduct himself? “It is God himself who works in us” (Phil 2:13). In general, everywhere in the world we see the kingdom of thought—both in the whole composition of the visible world and particularly on earth, in the circulation and life of the earthly globe, in the distribution of the elements of light, air, water, earth, and fire (in their hidden nature); while other elements are diffused in all animals—in birds, fish, reptiles, beasts, and man—in their wise and purposeful structure, in their capacities, natures, and habits; in plants, in their structure, in their nourishment, etc.—in short, everywhere we see the kingdom of thought, even in the lifeless stone and grain of sand.

14. O priests of the Lord! have the skill through the comfort of faith to transform the bed of sorrow of the suffering Christian into a bed of joy, have the skill to make him, from the most miserable person in his own eyes, the happiest man in the world; assure him that “being disciplined for a little while, he will be shown great mercy” (Solom 3:5) after death: and you will be the friends of mankind, angels of consolation, instruments of the Spirit of Consolation.

15. If you do not kindle the warmth of faith in your heart, faith may grow cold entirely through negligence; Christianity may seem completely dead in us with all its mysteries. The enemy strives only to extinguish faith in the heart and bring oblivion to all the truths of Christianity. This is why we see people who are Christians only in name, but in their deeds complete heathens.

16. Do not think that our faith is not life-giving for us—pastors—that we serve God hypocritically. No: we of all people benefit most from God’s mercies and know from experience that for us the Lord is present with His mysteries, that His Mother Most Pure and His saints are with us. For example, when we partake of the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we have often, very often experienced in ourselves their life-giving power, the heavenly gifts of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; we know that a merciful king’s glance does not gladden his last subject as much as the gracious gaze of our heavenly Master gladdens, as His Mysteries gladden. And we would be extremely ungrateful to the Lord and hardened in heart if we did not proclaim to all of God’s beloved this glory of the life-giving Mysteries—if we did not glorify His wonders accomplished in our hearts in every Divine Liturgy! We also often experience in ourselves the invincible, incomprehensible, divine power of the precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, and by its power we drive from our hearts passions, despondency, faintheartedness, fear, and all the snares of demons. It is our friend and benefactor. We speak this sincerely with full consciousness of the truth and power of our words.

17. You wish to comprehend the incomprehensible; but can you understand how the inner sorrows that kill your soul take hold of you, and find means—outside of the Lord—to drive them away? Know in your heart then how to free yourself from sorrows, how to make your heart peaceful, and then, if necessary, reason about the incomprehensible. “If you are not able to do even small things, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Lk 12:26)

18. Reflect often: whose wisdom manifested itself in the arrangement of your body and continually sustains it in being and functions? Who prescribed the laws of your thought, and it still follows them in all people? Who inscribed on all human hearts the law of conscience, and it still in all people rewards good and punishes evil? O Almighty God, all-wise and all-good! Your hand rests upon me ever, the sinner, and there is not a moment when Your goodness forsakes me. Grant me always to kiss Your right hand with living faith. Why should I go far to seek traces of Your goodness, Your wisdom, and Your almightiness? Ah! these traces are so clearly visible in me! I, I am a wonder of God’s goodness, wisdom, and almightiness. I am—in miniature—a whole world; my soul is a representative of the invisible world; my body is a representative of the visible world.

19. Brothers! what is the purpose of our life on earth? It is that, after being tested by earthly sorrows and miseries, and after gradual perfection in virtue through the help of the gracious gifts imparted in the mysteries, we may rest after death in God—the peace of our spirit. This is why we sing for the dead: Give rest, O Lord, to the soul of Your servant. We desire rest for the deceased as the end of all desires and pray to God for it. Is it not therefore foolish to grieve much over the dead? “Come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28), says the Lord. Behold, our dead, who have fallen asleep with Christian death, come to this voice of the Lord and find rest. Why then should we grieve?

20. For those who strive to live a spiritual life, there is the most subtle and most difficult warfare through thoughts—every moment of life is a spiritual battle; one must be every moment all eye and bright, to notice thoughts entering the soul from the evil one and to repel them; the heart of such people must always be on fire with faith, humility, love; otherwise, the deviousness of the devil easily dwells in it; after deviousness comes weak faith or unbelief, and then every evil, from which you will not soon wash yourself even with tears. Therefore do not permit your heart to be cold, especially during prayer; avoid with all your might cold indifference. Very often it happens that prayer is on the lips while deceit and weak faith or unbelief lurks in the heart, by the lips a man seems near to the Lord while by the heart he is far away. And during prayer the evil one uses every means to chill and deceive our heart in the least noticeable way to us. Pray and be strong, strengthen your heart.

21. If you wish to obtain some good from God through prayer, then before praying prepare yourself for firm, unwavering faith and take measures beforehand against doubt and unbelief. It is bad if during prayer itself your heart wavers in faith and does not stand firm in it: then do not think you will receive what you asked of God with doubt, because you have offended God, and to the mocker God does not give His gifts! “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mt 21:22), said the Lord, and therefore if you ask with unbelief or doubt, you will not receive. “If you believe and do not doubt”, He says further, “you can even move mountains” (Mt 21:21). Therefore if you doubt and do not believe, you will not do it. “When you ask, believe without doubting”, says the Apostle James, “for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind—such a man is double-minded and unstable in all he does” (Jac 1:6-8). A heart that doubts whether God can grant what is asked is punished for its doubt: it is painfully tormented and confined by doubt. Do not anger the Almighty God even with the shadow of doubt, especially you who have experienced God’s almightiness countless times. Doubt is blasphemy against God, the bold lie of the heart or of the spirit of lies dwelling in it, against the Spirit of truth. Fear it as a poisonous serpent, or rather—what am I saying—despise it, pay it no attention whatsoever. Remember that God during your petition awaits an affirmative answer to the question inwardly posed to you by Him: do you believe that I can do this? Yes, you must answer from the depths of your heart: I believe, O Lord! (cf. Mt 9:28) And then it will be done according to your faith. To help you against doubt or unbelief, consider the following: I am asking God for 1) something that exists, not something merely imagined, not a daydream, not a fantasy; all that exists has received its being from God, because “without Him nothing that has been made was made” (Jn 1:3), and therefore nothing happens without Him that happens; all things either received their being from Him, or by His will or permission happen and are done through the powers and abilities given by Him to His creatures—and in all that exists and happens, the Lord is the full sovereign Master. Moreover, “He calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17); therefore even if I asked for something that does not exist, He could give it to me by creating it. 2) I am asking for something possible, but for God even our impossible is possible; therefore there is no obstacle from this side either, because God can do for me even what by my understanding is impossible. Our trouble is that shortsighted reason mixes into our faith, this spider catching truth in the nets of its judgments, conclusions, and analogies. Faith suddenly embraces and sees; reason reaches truth by roundabout paths: faith is the means of communication of spirit with spirit, while reason communicates the spiritual-sensible with the spiritual-sensible and merely material; that is spirit, this is flesh.

22. All the goods of the soul—that is, all that constitutes the true life, peace, and joy of the soul—are from God! By experience. My heart says to me: You, O Holy Spirit, are the treasure of all good things!

23. Having Christ in your heart, fear lest you lose Him and with Him the peace of your heart; it is bitter to begin again, and efforts to cling to Him again after falling away will be grievous and will cost many bitter tears. Hold fast to Christ with all your strength, acquire Him and do not lose your holy boldness before Him.

24. You look upon an icon of the Savior and see that He gazes upon you with most radiant eyes—this gaze is indeed the image of His truly gazing upon you with eyes brighter than the sun and seeing all your thoughts, hearing all your heartfelt desires and sighs. An image is an image, in its features and signs it represents that which cannot be drawn or depicted, but is grasped only by faith. Believe then that the Savior always looks upon you and sees you all—with all your thoughts, sorrows, sighs, with all your circumstances, as if written on the palm of His hand: “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me”, says the Lord (Is 49:16). How much consolation, how much life in these words of the Almighty Provider! So pray before the icon of the Savior as if before Him Himself; the Lover of mankind is present to it by His grace and with the eyes depicted on it truly looks upon you: “the eyes of the Lord are on every place” (Prov 15:3), therefore on the icon as well, and with the ears depicted on it, He hears you. But remember that His eyes are the eyes of God, and His ears are the ears of God who is present everywhere.

25. In well-intentioned writings of men, honor “the light of Christ, which enlightens everyone who comes into the world” (Jn 1:9), and read them with love, giving thanks to Christ the Giver of Light, who abundantly pours out His light on all the zealous.

26. Wherever I may be, if only I lift the eye of my heart in my sorrow to God, the Lover of mankind immediately responds to my faith and prayer, and sorrow at once passes. He is at all times and at all hours near me. You do not see Him, but you truly feel Him in your heart. Sorrow is the death of the heart; it is a falling away from God; the breadth and peace of the heart with living faith in Him proves more clearly than daylight that the Lord is constantly with me and He dwells within me. What intercessor or angel will deliver us from sins or sorrows? No one except God alone. This is by experience.

27. Let us measure the worth of our prayer by human measure—by the quality of our relations toward people. What are we like with people? Sometimes we speak coldly to them, without heart participation, from duty or propriety, expressing our requests, praise, or gratitude, or doing something for them; sometimes with warmth, with heart participation, with love; sometimes falsely, sometimes sincerely. So too we are not always the same with God. But it should not be so. We must always from all our heart express to God both glorification and thanksgiving and petition; we must always from all our heart do all our deeds before Him; we must with all our heart always love Him and hope in Him.

28. Belief in the existence of God is closely bound with belief in the existence of one’s own soul as part of the spiritual world. To a pious soul, the existence of God is as evident as one’s own existence, because with each good or bad thought, desire, intention, word, or deed, corresponding changes occur in the heart—peace or unrest, joy or sorrow—and this is the result of the action upon it of God, the Lord of spirits and of all flesh, who is reflected in the pious soul as the sun is reflected in a drop of water; the purer the drop, the better and clearer the reflection; the murkier, the dimmer—so that in a state of extreme impurity and blackness of soul, the reflection ceases, and the soul remains in darkness of spirit, in a state of insensibility; a man has eyes and sees not, has ears and hears not. Furthermore, God in relation to our soul is the same as the external air in relation to the mercury of a thermometer, with this difference: the expansion and standing, the rising and falling of the mercury occurs as a result of changes in the state of the atmosphere, whereas God remains unchanging, eternal, eternally good and just; the soul, changing in its relations to God, undergoes changes in itself—it inevitably expands, rests in the heart as a result of drawing near to God through faith and good works, and inevitably contracts, becomes uneasy, is tormented as a result of withdrawing from God through weak faith, disbelief in God’s truth, and lawless deeds.

29. The evil one tries to scatter prayer like sand—he wants to make words like dry sand without connection, without moisture—that is, without the warmth of the heart. Prayer is sometimes “a house built on sand”, sometimes “a house built on rock” (Mt 7:24,26). Those build on sand who pray without faith, distractedly, with coldness—such prayer collapses of itself and brings no benefit to the one who prays; those build on rock who throughout all their prayer keep their eyes fixed on the Lord and pray to Him as to one living, speaking face to face with them.

30. The word of grace, the writings of the holy fathers, prayers, and especially the word of the Hypostatic Word Himself, are truly living water; water flows, and the word flows like water; water refreshes and quickens the body, and the gracious word awakens, penetrates the soul with peace and joy or with compunction and contrition for sins.

31. Our hope of obtaining what we ask for in prayer is founded on belief in God’s goodness and mercies—that God is merciful and compassionate and a lover of mankind—and in this we remember innumerable past experiences of goodness and mercy both in other people (in Holy Scripture and in the lives of the saints) and in ourselves. Therefore for the success of prayer it is also necessary that the one who prays has already received before what is being asked for and firmly believed it in his heart. Often we receive what we have asked for in our prayers, especially petitions for the salvation of our souls; we must ascribe this directly to the Lord and His grace, not to chance. Where can we place chance in the Kingdom of the Almighty God? Without Him nothing truly happens, as “without Him nothing that has been made was made” (Jn 1:3). Many do not pray because it seems to them that they have received no gifts from God through prayer, or they consider prayer a useless action; God, they say, knows all things before we ask, and they forget that it is written: “ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you” (Mt 7:7). Our petitions (prayers) are needed precisely to strengthen our faith, by which alone we are saved: “by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph 2:8); “O woman, great is your faith” (Mt 15:28)! The Savior made the woman earnestly entreat so as to awaken her faith and strengthen it. Such people do not see that they have no faith—the most precious possession of a Christian, which is necessary as life itself—that by their unbelief they “make God a liar” (1Jn 1:10) and are children of the devil, unworthy of any of God’s mercies; that they are perishing. It is also necessary that the heart burn during prayer with desire for spiritual goods, with love for God, clearly contemplated by the heart in His extreme goodness toward mankind and ready to hear with fatherly love all of its prayers. “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him” (Mt 7:11)?

32. God, as eternal Truth, does not tolerate in us even a moment of doubt in the truth. God, as eternal Goodness, “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1Tim 2:4). And we, as children of a good God, must also from all our heart wish salvation to all, even our enemies, and care for it.

33. Watch over your heart all your life and observe and listen to it—what prevents its union with the thrice-blessed God? Let this be the science of sciences, and with God’s help you can easily notice what distances you from God and what brings you near to Him and unites you with Him. Your heart itself tells you this—now uniting with God, now being torn from Him. The evil one stands most of all between our heart and God; it is he who distances God from us through various passions or the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

34. What is wonderful if God the Word Himself, the Creator of all things visible and invisible, transforms and transubstantiates the bread and wine into His most pure Body and most pure Blood? In this bread and wine the Son of God is not incarnate anew, because He was incarnate once—and this suffices for all infinite ages—but is incarnate in that same body which was incarnate before—after the manner in which He multiplied the five loaves and with these five loaves fed many thousands. There are many mysteries in nature which my reason cannot even comprehend in material things, yet things exist with their mysteries. So too in this mystery of the life-giving Body and Blood, the mystery of how bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Lord Himself is a mystery to me—but the mysteries of the Body and Blood truly exist, though incomprehensible to me. My Creator (I am His vessel—or God made me from flesh and blood and breathed into me His spirit)—as God all-wise and infinitely almighty—has many mysteries; I myself am a mystery to myself as the work of His hands. For my soul—the Spirit of the Lord; for my soul and body—His body and blood.

35. Just as the soul bears its body, so God bears the whole universe, all worlds, being unlimited by them; the soul fills all the body—and “the Spirit of the Lord fills the universe” (Solom 1:7); only the soul is limited by the body, though imperfectly, because it can move about everywhere; but the Spirit of the Lord is not limited by the world and is not confined in the world as in a body.

36. Christ, brought into the heart by faith, dwells in it with peace and joy. It is not for nothing that it is said of God: You are holy and dwell in the holy ones.

37. Do not gaze at the beauty of a human face, but look at his soul; do not look at his clothing (the body is a temporary garment) but look at who wears it; do not look at the magnificence of a house but look at who dwells in it and what he is—otherwise you will offend the image of God in man, dishonor the king by bowing before his servant and not showing him the least honor due to him. Similarly, do not look at the beauty of printed letters in a book but look at the book’s spirit; otherwise you demean the spirit and exalt the body; because letters are the body and the book’s content is the spirit. Do not be deceived by the melodious sounds of an instrument or voice but discern what spirit they carry by their effect on your soul or by their words; if these sounds bring to your soul quiet, chaste, holy feelings, then listen and nourish your soul with them; if through them passions flow into your soul, then cease to listen, reject both the body and the spirit of music.

38. The inner man, from beneath the vanity of the world, from beneath the darkness of his own flesh, unbound by the temptations of the evil one, appears more freely in the morning upon waking, like a fish that sometimes leaps to the surface of the water. All the rest of the time he is covered by an almost impenetrable darkness; on his eyes lies a painful bandage, hiding from him the true order of spiritual and sensible things. Seize then the morning hours—they are the hours of a new, renewed life refreshed by sleep. They point to us something of that state when we shall rise renewed in the eternal morning of the never-ending day of resurrection, or when we are freed from this mortal body.

39. And in prayer too, man is for the most part not a son of freedom but a slave of necessity and duty. Look at any man whatsoever, even a priest. How many truly pray with a free, spacious heart, with living faith and love?

40. During prayer there sometimes occur moments of deadly darkness and heart-constriction arising from the heart’s unbelief (unbelief is darkness). Do not lose heart in these moments, but remember that if the divine light has been cut off in you, it still shines always in all its brilliance and majesty in God, in the Church of God both heavenly and earthly, and in the material world, in which are visible “His eternal power and divinity” (Rom 1:20). Do not think that truth has weakened: it never weakens because truth is God Himself, and all that exists in Him has its foundation and cause in Him—only your weak, sinful, dark heart weakens in truth, which cannot always bear the strain of its light and is not always able to contain its purity—only then when it is cleansed or has been cleansed from sin, as the first cause of spiritual darkness. The proof of this is most readily taken from yourself. When the light of faith or God’s truth lives in your heart, then it is peaceful, firm, strong, alive; but when it is cut off, then it is uneasy, weak as a reed shaken by the wind, lifeless. Pay no attention to this satanic darkness. Drive it from your heart with the sign of the life-giving Cross.

Part One §41-80

41. Do not spare yourself for heartfelt prayer even when you have spent the whole day in labor. Do not be negligent in holy prayer whatsoever; tell the Lord everything from your heart, seeing that it is God’s work. Once you have taken the cross, do not say you are not strong enough; “having put your hand to the plow, do not look back” (cf. Lk 9:62). If you allow negligent prayer, not from all your heart, you will not sleep (if praying before sleep) until you have wept out your sin before God. This does not happen to all, but to those who have grown in perfection. See then—place not the body above God, but neglect for His sake the body’s rest as well. Whatever prayer rule you have taken upon yourself to fulfill (if it is a long prayer rule, then fulfill the entire rule well; if short, likewise), fulfill it with all conscientiousness, and do not do God’s work with a divided heart—so that one half belongs to God and the other to your flesh. The zeal of God will not tolerate your deceitfulness, your self-pity. He will deliver you to the devil, and the devil will not grant peace to your heart because of your contempt for Him who is the true peace of your heart and who always does this for your own benefit, to keep your heart near to God, because every insincere prayer distances the heart from God and arms it against man himself; conversely, every sincere prayer brings the human heart near to God and makes it intimate with God. So believe the word: if you rush through prayer for bodily rest so you can recover sooner, you will lose both bodily and spiritual peace. Ah! with what labors, sweat, and tears our heart’s nearness to God is attained; and shall we now make prayer itself (negligent prayer) the means of distancing ourselves from God, and will not God be zealous over this? For He pities both us and our former labors, and He wants to force us to turn back to Him again from all our hearts. He wants us always to belong to Him.

42. Without God (without His omnipresence) there cannot be a single movement of my thought and heart: there is action, there must be a cause; there is effect, there must be a beginning. This is why the Apostle says: “we are not able to think anything from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2Cor 3:5). God is alive, and therefore my soul is alive.

43. If my life were to last only a few moments, say ten—and five of them were moments of peace and the other five of torment and pain, even then I would necessarily have to say with certainty: yes, I have a Life-giver, and my Life-giver cares for me; I would also necessarily have to say that there is a being in the world that holds the power of death; because the five unfavorable moments must come from a being opposed to God; because the same cause cannot produce opposite effects. But I, a sinner, in my spiritual life have at least 70 out of 100 parts belonging to God and only 30 to the devil. How then can I not see the Benefactor constantly before me, how can I waver in living faith in Him?

44. And time flows without stopping, and my body during this life constantly changes and passes away, and the whole world, as is evident from its movement, also passes away and seems to hasten toward its appointed end, like a wound-up machine. Where then is the permanent? The permanent is that which moves and directs all of this toward its goals; the first cause of all that is composite and created is permanent—it itself is not composite and therefore does not pass away, it is eternal; the spirits created in the image of the first Cause, angels and men, are also permanent. All else is a soap bubble. I do not disparage creation with these words, but speak of it comparatively with the Creator and with the blessed spirits.

45. Value at its true worth the greatest miracle of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, manifested in partaking with faith of His divine Mysteries. What is this miracle? The peace and vivification of your heart, killed by sin, so evident after the often preceding heart-anxiety and spiritual death before communion. From familiarity, never count it as something ordinary and insignificant: such thoughts and dispositions of the heart draw God’s wrath upon you, and you will not taste peace and life after communion. Acquire life from the Lord through the most vivid heartfelt gratitude for the gifts of vivification, and let your faith grow more and more. Fear and anxiety arising from unbelief are signs. If they arise during communion, consider it a sure sign that by your unbelief you are distancing yourself from the Life present in the Chalice, and pay them no attention. O faith! faith! you yourself are a marvel to us! You save us: “Your faith has saved you” (Mk 5:34). And after living faith in God’s truth we always depart from the Lord in peace; on the contrary, after weak faith we always leave without peace. Ah! Satan often enters after unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries, and he strives in every way to plant his lie in our heart—that is, unbelief, because unbelief is the same as a lie. The murderer of men from the beginning, he still strives in every way to kill man through his lie and various thoughts, and creeping into the heart in the form of unbelief or some passion, he subsequently manifests himself in a manner worthy of himself, showing impatience and malice. And you see that he is in you, yet often you do not soon free yourself from him, because he usually tries to seal all paths of exit from the heart—through unbelief, hardness, and his other offspring. In vain you labor in me, fallen archangel. I am a servant of my Lord Jesus Christ. You, exalted pride, humble yourself by struggling so intensely against me, the weak one. Speak thus mentally to the evil spirit lying heavy as a burden on your heart and urging you toward various evils. These words are a fiery scourge to the proud spirit, and he, shamed by your steadfastness and spiritual wisdom, will flee from you. You will see this at once, will feel it, and will marvel at the wonderful change in yourself: the heavy, soul-destroying burden on your heart will vanish, it will become so light, so light, and you will be convinced tangibly that there are spirits of evil under heaven, constantly seeking our ruin, poisoning our heart with the venom of dark and malicious thoughts, striving to destroy our love for people and our fellowship with them.

46. All my troubles arise in my invisible thought and invisible heart, and therefore I need an invisible Savior as well, one who guides our hearts. O my strength, Jesus, Son of God! O light of my mind! peace, joy, breadth of my heart—glory to You! Glory to You, Deliverer from my invisible enemies, who war against my mind and heart and kill me in the very source of my life, in my most sensitive place.

47. Carefully watch for the manifestations of pride: it manifests itself imperceptibly, especially in irritation and irritability toward others over the most trivial reasons.

48. In every way, the wondrous action of the life-giving Cross on our soul, bitten by the poison of evil, assures us certainly and tangibly that: 1) we truly have a soul, a spiritual being; 2) there are evil spirits that mortally touch our soul; 3) there is God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and He is always with us through His divinity; and 4) He truly accomplished our salvation on the cross through His suffering and death and destroyed the devil’s power through the cross. How many proofs for our faith from the wondrous action upon us of the life-giving Cross alone! Glory to the Christian faith!

49. Those who lead a spiritual life see with the eyes of the heart how the devil works mischief, how angels guide, how the Lord sovereignly permits temptations, and how He comforts.

50. To pass the whole day in perfect holiness, peace, and sinlessness, the sole means is the most sincere, fervent prayer immediately upon waking from sleep. It will bring Christ with the Father and Holy Spirit into the heart and thus give strength and firmness to the soul against the assaults of evil; you need only guard your heart.

51. In the grief of your soul you sometimes wish to die. Dying is easy, does not last long; but are you ready for death? After death comes the judgment of your whole life (Hebr 9:27). You are not ready for death, and if it came to you, your whole body would tremble. Do not waste words uselessly, do not say: I would rather be dead, but say often: how can I prepare myself for a Christian death—through faith, good works, and magnanimous endurance of the misfortunes and sorrows that befall me, to meet death without fear, peacefully, with no shame, not as a terrible law of nature but as a fatherly call of the immortal heavenly Father, the holy and blessed One, to the land of eternity. Remember the elder who, worn by his burden, wished to die rather than live, and began calling death to him. It came—he did not want it, but chose rather to bear his heavy burden.

52. With the mental eyes of my heart I see how I mentally breathe Christ into my heart, how He enters it and suddenly brings it peace and delight. O, let me not remain alone, without You, Giver of life, my breath, my joy! I am miserable without You.

53. Can one pray in haste without harming one’s prayer? Yes, those who have learned internal prayer with a pure heart. In prayer, the heart must truly desire what it asks for; it must feel the truth of what it speaks—and a pure heart has this as it were in its nature. Therefore it can pray even in haste and still be pleasing to God, because haste does not harm the truth (sincerity) of prayer. But those who have not acquired heartfelt prayer must pray slowly, waiting for the corresponding echo in the heart of each word of the prayer. But this is not always quickly granted to a man unaccustomed to prayerful contemplation. Therefore, the rare pronunciation of prayer words for such people must be made an unbreakable rule. Wait until each word resounds in your heart with its own echo.

54. In the human heart there occurs now a drawing near to God, now a withdrawing from God, and with this—now peace and joy, now confusion, fear, constraint, now spiritual life, now spiritual death. Drawing near most often occurs in sorrow, when no one can save us except the Lord, to whom we turn with all our heart and thus truly draw near to Him; withdrawing occurs in contentment and abundance of earthly goods, which puff up the fleshly old man, and precisely then when man yearns for wealth, glory, and station, and when, attaining these, he loses faith from his heart and forgets about God the Judge and Rewarder, about his soul’s immortality, about his duty to love God and every man with all his heart as he loves himself.

55. Just as an unkind man, coming with a petition to a kind, meek, and humble man, for the better success of his petition tries himself to become like him, so a Christian, approaching with prayer to the Lord, or His Most Pure Mother, or the Angels, or the saints, must for the success of his prayer become like, as far as possible, the Lord Himself, or His Most Pure Mother, or the Angels, or the saints. And herein lies the secret of the approach and swift hearing of our prayers.

56. The Triune God sees and hears me: this is the most life-giving assurance for the heart, penetrating my heart with peace and joy. The Compassionate Mother of the Word of God sees me and hears my prayers and sighs to Her—another consoling assurance, constantly vindicated in deed. Therefore I will walk in the consciousness of the omnipresence and omniscience of God!

57. The most striking proof that the devil exists in the world is that people do not feel or feel very little (although some try) God’s mercies in creation, providence, and redemption: there is a strong opponent to all that is good and righteous.

58. The task of our life is to unite ourselves with God, yet sin completely hinders this; therefore flee from sin as from a terrible enemy, as from a murderer of the soul, because without God there is death, not life. Let us understand our calling, let us remember constantly that the common Master calls us to unite ourselves with Him.

59. Christians have a special need to have a pure heart, because with the eyes of the heart we must see God as He is—with His love for us and all His perfections, the beauty of the Angels, all the glory of the Master, the beauty of Her soul and Her greatness as the Mother of God, the beauty of the souls of God’s saints and their love for us; we must see them as they are in themselves, we must see the truths of the Christian faith with all its mysteries and feel their magnitude; we must see the state of our own souls, especially our sins. But an impure heart—that is, one occupied with attachment to the earthly, nurturing fleshly lusts, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—cannot see any of this that we have indicated.

60. Prayer is the raising up of mind and heart to God. From this it is evident that one cannot pray if his mind and heart are strongly attached to something fleshly, for example to money, to honor, or if he harbors passions in his heart: hatred, envy toward others, because passions usually bind the heart, whereas God expands it and grants it true freedom.

61. It is incomprehensible how Christ Himself unites with the sign of the cross and gives it wondrous power to drive away passions, demons, and quiet the troubled soul. Just so it is incomprehensible how the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ unites with the bread and wine, transforms it into flesh and blood, and clearly cleanses our soul from sins, bringing into it heavenly peace and tranquility, making it good, meek, humble, full of heartfelt faith and hope. This is explained in part by the fact that everywhere the almighty, creative Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ is present and everywhere He can even “call things that do not exist into existence” (Rom 4:17), much more so making other things from what exists. But so that a weak-hearted person does not think that the cross or the name of Christ work miracles by themselves and not through Christ, these same cross and name of Christ do not produce a miracle when I do not see Christ the Lord with the eyes of my heart or believe with all my heart in all that He has accomplished for our salvation.

62. “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt 28:20). So, Master, You are with us—all days, not one day do we live without You, without Your co-presence. You are with us especially in the mystery of Your Body and Blood. O, how truly and essentially You dwell in the Mysteries! You clothe Yourself, Master, in every Liturgy in a body like ours except for sin, and feed us with Your life-giving flesh. Through the Mysteries You are wholly with us, and Your flesh unites with our flesh and Your Spirit unites with our soul—and we feel, we perceive this life-giving, transcendent, most sweet union; we feel that, cleaving to You in the Eucharist, we become one spirit with You, as it is written: “he who unites himself with the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1Cor 6:17). We become, like You, good, meek, and humble, as You said of Yourself: “I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). It is true that often the cunning and blind flesh or the prince of this age living in our sinful flesh whispers to us that in the Mysteries there is only bread and wine, not the very Body and Blood of the Lord, and sends false witnesses to do this—sight, taste, and touch. But we do not permit ourselves to hear his slander and reason thus: for You, Lord, all things are possible; You create flesh for humans, animals, fish, birds, reptiles—all creation; shall You, who are everywhere and fill all things, not create flesh for Yourself? What sculptor, making statues for others, is not able to make one for himself? Moreover, You transform dead matter into living being—for example, Moses’ staff into a serpent—and nothing is impossible for You. Shall You not make flesh for Yourself from bread and wine, which are so close to our flesh, being consumed as food and drink and transformed into our flesh and blood? You do not let our faith “be tempted beyond what it can bear” (1Cor 10:13); You do not transubstantiate a clod of earth into Your most pure Body and Blood, but white, soft, pure, pleasant to taste bread; You do not make water Your Blood, but wine appropriate to the color of blood (which is called “the blood of the vine” in Holy Scripture (Sir 50:17)), pleasant to taste and rejoicing the heart of man; You know our weakness, the weakness of our faith, and therefore graciously chose for Your mystery of Body and Blood the very substances most appropriate to them. Let us therefore firmly believe that under the appearance of bread and wine we partake of the true Body and true Blood of Christ, that in the mystery of communion the Lord remains with us “always, to the very end of the age” (Mt 28:20).

63. Our soul is, so to speak, a reflection of God’s face; the clearer and greater this reflection, the brighter and more peaceful it is; the less clear, the darker and more troubled. And since our soul is our heart, it is necessary that in it there be reflected through feeling and gratitude every truth of God, and that there be absolutely no reflection of falsehood. Feel God’s love in the most pure Mysteries, feel the truth of all prayers. Our heart is a mirror; truth, like objects of the external world in an ordinary mirror, must be reflected with complete accuracy in our heart.

64. It is good, very good to be virtuous. A good man is himself at peace, is pleasing to God, and is beloved by people. A virtuous man involuntarily draws the eyes of all. Why? Because fragrance involuntarily makes one stop and inhale it. Look at the very appearance of a virtuous man, at his face. What is this face? It is an angelic countenance. Meekness and humility are diffused over it and captivate all involuntarily by their beauty. Pay attention to his speech; there is even more fragrance from it: there you are as it were face to face with his soul—and you melt from his sweet conversation.

65. Love brings peace and pleasantly expands the heart, gives it life, but hatred painfully constrains and disturbs it. He who hates others tortures and tyrannizes himself—he is more foolish than all fools.

66. When you see painful destruction of the body, do not murmur against the Lord, but say: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21). You are accustomed to regard your body as inalienable property, but this is most unjust, because your body is God’s building.

67. What an exalted office is the priesthood! Constantly the priest speaks with the Lord, and constantly the Lord answers his speech; whatever the service, whatever the prayer, it is discourse with the Lord; whatever the service, whatever the prayer, it is an answer from the Lord. When passions assail, how can the priest not remember that passions are base, unclean, especially for him, so as to allow them into his heart, which must always be wholly filled with Jesus Christ alone. The priest is an angel, not a man; he must leave all worldly things far behind him. O Lord Jesus! “May Your priests be clothed with righteousness” (Ps 131:9); may they always remember the exaltedness of their calling and may they not become entangled in the snares of the world and the devil; may there depart from their hearts “the anxieties of this age, the delight of riches, and the other desires that enter in” (Mk 4:19) to their heart.

68. Numerous and varied are the paths by which the devil enters our soul and removes it from God, pressing upon it with all his being—dark, hateful, death-dealing. Every movement of passion is a path for him, and he does not miss the least opportunity to enter it. Similarly, numerous and varied are the paths of the Holy Spirit: the path of sincere faith, of heartfelt humility, of heartfelt love for God and neighbor, and so forth. But the trouble is that the age-old murderer of men strives in every way to block these paths for us. The most common path for us sinners, who have departed from God to a far country, to return to God is the path of suffering and bitter tears. Both Holy Scripture and experience assure us that for a sinner to draw near to God he must suffer, weep, and lament and correct his double-hearted soul. “Come near to Him, suffer and weep and lament” (Jac 4:9). Tears have the power to cleanse the filth of our heart, and sufferings are necessary because through suffering the sinful breadth of the heart is salutarily constrained, and from the constraint of the heart tears most easily flow.

69. When the devil is in our heart, then there is an extraordinary, death-dealing heaviness and fire in the breast and heart; the soul is extraordinarily constrained and darkened; everything irritates it; toward every good deed it feels repugnance; it twists the words and actions of others toward it and sees evil intention against it, against its honor, and therefore feels toward them a deep, death-dealing hatred, rages and yearns for vengeance. “By their fruits you will recognize them” (Mt 7:20). There are days when the evil spirit troubles me.

70. People have fallen into unbelief because they have completely lost the spirit of prayer or never had it—in short, because they do not pray. The prince of this age has a clear field for action in the hearts of such people; he is their master. Through prayer they have not asked and do not ask from the Lord the dew of God’s grace (but only to those who ask and seek are the Lord’s gifts given), and so hearts, corrupted by nature, without the quickening dew of the Holy Spirit, have dried up and from extreme dryness at last have burst into flames with the hellish fire of unbelief and various passions; and the devil just keeps inflaming the passions that maintain this terrible fire and exults at the sight of the ruin of miserable souls, redeemed by the blood of Him whose power he has trampled.

71. Morning prayer. O God! Creator and Master of the world! look mercifully upon Your creation, adorned with Your divine image in these morning hours: may Your Eye, countless times brighter than the rays of the sun, give life and light to my soul, dark and slain by sin. Take from me despondency and laziness, grant me joy and liveliness of soul, that in the rejoicing of my heart I praise Your goodness, Your holiness, Your boundless greatness, Your infinite perfections at every hour and in every place. For You are my Creator and the Master of my life, O Lord, and glory is due to You from Your rational creations at all times, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

72. Since man by his own will fell away from God, he, like a domestic animal that later turned wild in thick forests, looks reluctantly at the place of his former dwelling, loves the darkness of the forest—that is, this present world—more than the light of that former place, that is, God’s paradise. With difficulty he unites with God and often falls away from Him even after union; with difficulty does he truly believe in God and in all He has revealed to him; he does not constantly care to preserve the heavenly gift of faith in his heart.

73. If God does not abandon through His providence even a little grass, a flower, or a leaf on a tree, will He abandon us? O, let each person be convinced with all their heart that the Lord Himself is faithful to Himself in His providence over every even the least of His creatures. Understand that the Creator is invisibly present to each creature. According to the Savior’s words, God clothes the flowers of the field and feeds the birds of the sky (Mt 6:26,30). How many ways God delights us, His creatures! Even with flowers. Like a tender mother, through His eternal power and wisdom, He creates for us each summer these magnificent plants from nothing. Let us enjoy them and not forget to glorify the goodness of our Creator, our heavenly Father; and let us ourselves answer His love for us with our loving hearts.

74. Whoever does not believe in God, who saves in difficult circumstances, and loses heart does not wish to give glory to God, depicts Him as not watching but sleeping or not almighty and not good, makes God, who is truth, a liar, and through this sins gravely; especially inexcusable is loss of heart and unbelief in a man who has often been deemed worthy to receive miraculous help from God the Savior. O, I am a great sinner!

75. The invisible, all-pervading God often and tangibly touches my invisible soul, which from His touch tastes wondrous peace and heavenly joy. Not my eyes convey to me news of my God (senses are for lower objects of being), not my hearing alone through words and the sounds of voice bring to me knowledge of the Incomprehensible, but my soul itself is, so to speak, mingled with God.

76. When the malice of people troubles and casts your heart into despondency, remember how infinitely the almighty and all-just Lord God loves you, He who for a time tolerates malice and then in due season punishes it in a manner worthy of it. You cannot master yourself, your tongue, one member of your body. Judge by this what He is like, who rules the whole world, who keeps it in such wonderful order, who governs the whole human race, malicious, corrupt, always ready to destroy one another, and yet more flourishing under His rule than suffering. How almighty and wise is He in governing such a diverse multitude! Trust yourself wholly to Him.

77. When it concerns God’s Mysteries, do not ask inwardly: how does this happen? You do not know how God created the whole world from nothing; you cannot and should not know here either how God does something in mystery. God’s mystery should remain a mystery for you, because you are not God and cannot know all that the infinitely wise, almighty God knows. You are the work of His hands, a insignificant creature of His. Remember that there was a time when nothing was, and then all that now is was created from nothing by God’s Word. “Without Him nothing that has been made was made” (Jn 1:3).

78. Give, O you who pray, to God your heart—that loving, sincere heart with which you love your children, parents, benefactors, and friends, in which you feel the sweetness of genuine, pure love.

79. Sometimes in a prolonged prayer only a few minutes are truly pleasing to God and constitute true prayer and true service to God. The main thing in prayer is the closeness of the heart to God, witnessed by the sweetness of God’s presence in the soul.

80. “Let it be as I will, not as you will”. This is the sovereign voice of God that our soul, fallen into sin and desiring to emerge from the state of sinful spiritual sorrow, always hears. Let it be as I will: either bring corresponding repentance for your sin in the depths of your heart and return to the path of life I have shown you, or bear the punishment corresponding to your sin, determined by My justice: otherwise your sin will torment you as a deviation from My laws. And our soul will taste peace only when it truly brings in the depths of its heart repentance corresponding to the sin or bears the due punishment from God. O almighty and all-just sovereignty of our God, ruling invisibly over our invisible souls—all glory to You! Glory to You, O God, our Savior! May Your will be done over us!

Part One §81-120

81. How easily and quickly the Lord can save us! Instantaneously, unexpectedly, imperceptibly. Often during the day I was a great sinner, but in the evening after prayer I went to rest justified and more white than snow with the grace of the Holy Spirit, with profound peace and sweetness in my heart! How easy it is for the Lord to save us even in the evening of our life, at the decline of our days! O save, save, save me, most gracious Lord, receive me into Your heavenly kingdom! All things are possible for You. “We stand or fall to our own Master, yet we shall stand: for God is able to make us stand” (Rom 14:4).

82. What is especially important and constitutes the life of any being, the Creator has placed and hidden far—in the depths, within that being; we see this everywhere. So too in man: the soul dwells in the very center of his being—in the heart, which is why the soul is often called the heart and the heart the soul. “My spirit faints within me; my heart within me is troubled” (Ps 142:4). “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps 50:12).

83. Our God is a God of mercy and compassion and love for mankind (Ps 102 and others), not a God of torment and punishment. Torments are the fruits of our sins and the bodiless rebels from God. Therefore, if you are grieving in your heart, blame it solely on sin and the devil, or rather on yourself, because the devil will not cause you any harm if he does not find in you something he can cling to.

84. “I am the Lord your God, a jealous God” (Ex 20:5). “I will not give my glory to another” (Is 42:8). These words of the Lord of glory are fulfilled each time I ascribe to another or something else in my heart the glory of God’s works wrought in me by the Holy Gifts, instead of offering it wholly to Him. He instantly becomes zealous then for the glory of His mysteries, always wondrous and life-giving, and by His righteous judgment punishes my soul with His fatherly rod! O my soul clearly hears then the words of her Lord: I will not give my glory to another. Because you do not ascribe to Me the glory due to Me, so evident to you in My Mysteries, I strike your inward being with the rod of My justice and in this make you know and believe in your heart that I will never give My glory to anyone else. I cleanse your sins and make your soul whiter than snow with My Blood; I visit your soul with peace and joy; I warm and cherish you as a mother does an infant and instill in you My meekness and humility; I pour love into your heart; I transform you wholly, transfigure you—to your own amazement—into a new person—and to whom else should I give the glory of My deeds? No, I am eternally unchanging; not as a man am I moved, “nor as a son of man” do I change (Num 23:19).

85. The invisible Lord acts upon my soul as if visible, as if standing always before me, knowing all my thoughts and feelings: every inner negligence, or stubbornness, or passion is always accompanied for me by a corresponding punishment. In general, if my inner disposition is unworthy of God, His holiness, then I suffer punishment in my heart, a consuming fire; but when it is worthy, then I am joyful and peaceful.

86. No matter what anyone says, a person is sometimes extremely irritable and evil not of himself but with the most earnest assistance of the devil. You need only observe yourself or others during times of irritability and malice, when you or someone else wish to destroy a person truly or seemingly hostile to you; compare the tranquility, meekness, and goodness of character that follow (sometimes soon afterward—through the action of the Guardian Angel) with the opposite previous state, and you will say to yourself: no, this seems to be a completely different person than the one who just shortly before was angry and raging—this is a man “out of whom demons had gone out, sitting at the feet of Jesus” (Lk 8:35) (meek and humble), clothed and in his right mind. There is not a shadow of that former malice and former madness in him! Some deny the existence of evil spirits: but such occurrences in human life can clearly testify to their existence. If every phenomenon has a corresponding cause and from the fruits the tree is known, then who would not see in a man raging insanely the work of an evil spirit acting within him, who cannot manifest himself otherwise than in a manner worthy of himself! Who in the outpouring of human malice would not see the prince of malice? Moreover, a man subject to irritability and breathing malice clearly feels within his breast the presence of a hostile, evil force; it produces in the soul something completely opposite to what the Savior says of His presence: “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt 11:30). In that presence you feel yourself extremely badly and heavily—both spiritually and physically.

87. You hear in church most of all the voices of the clergy, readers, and singers singing of mercy upon us. What does this mean? It means that we all, however many of us are in the temple of God, by our sins deserve God’s punishments, and that above all—on entering the temple—we must remember that we are sinners, that we have come to the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator and Benefactor, daily and hourly angered by our iniquities, to beseech Him each one for himself and even—by Christian love—for others for mercy. Petitions for mercy are sometimes great, sometimes small, sometimes solemn. Since there is not a single unnecessary word in the church, during the singing of the solemn litany one must pray to God with special fervor from the depths of the soul, from the most contrite heart, as is also said at the beginning of the litany: let us all say with our whole soul and all our mind. During this time one must put aside even the least coldness, the least inattention of heart and, burning with a humble spirit, standing all attention, lift up to the Creator the most fervent prayer for mercy upon us sinners. But what do we see at the cry of the clergy and the singing of the singers of the solemn and great litany? For the most part—ordinary inattention and indifference of those at prayer.

88. As after unworthy communion, so after unworthy, cold prayer, there is similarly badness in the soul. This means: the Lord does not enter our heart, offended by our heart’s unbelief and coldness, and allows evil spirits to nest in our heart so as to make us feel the difference between His yoke and theirs.

89. A terrible truth. Unrepentant sinners after death lose all possibility of changing for the better and therefore remain unchangeably given over to eternal torments (sin cannot but torment). How can this be proved? This is evidently proved by the present state of some sinners and by the nature of sin itself—to hold a man in its captivity and block all his exits. Who does not know how difficult it is without special grace of God for a sinner to turn from the path of sin he loves to the path of virtue! How deeply sin plants its roots in the sinner’s heart and in all his being, how it gives the sinner its own vision, which sees things completely differently than they are in reality, appearing to him in a kind of enchanting form. This is why we see that sinners very often do not even think of their conversion and do not consider themselves great sinners, because self-love and pride blind their eyes; if they do consider themselves sinners, they fall into hellish despair, which spreads deep darkness in their mind and strongly hardens their heart. If not for God’s grace, who among sinners would turn to God, since sin’s nature is to darken us, bind us hand and foot. But the time and place for grace’s action is only here: after death—only the Church’s prayers and only for penitent sinners, those who have receptivity in their souls, the light of good deeds they carried from this life, to which God’s grace or the Church’s gracious prayers can attach themselves. Unrepentant sinners are surely sons of perdition. What does experience tell me when I am in sin’s captivity? I am sometimes tormented the whole day and cannot turn wholly around because sin hardens me, making God’s mercy inaccessible to me: I burn in fire and voluntarily remain in it because sin has bound my powers and I—like one shackled inwardly—cannot turn to God until God, seeing my helplessness, my humility, and my tears, has mercy on me and sends me His grace! It is not for nothing that a man given to sins is called “bound with the chains of their sins” (2Pet 2:4).

90. Your spiritual life is clearly divided into two sharply different states: a state of peace, joy, and breadth of heart, and a state of sorrow, fear, and tightness of soul. The cause of the first state is always the harmonious action of my soul with the laws of the Creator, and the cause of the second is the violation of His holy laws. I can always notice and in fact do notice the beginning of each state; in my consciousness both are always present. Therefore it is always the case that when you destroy the cause that produced the state of sorrow and tightness, you destroy also the effect—that is, the very sorrow and tightness of the soul.

91. “Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you fail the test?” (2Cor 13:5) Truly Christ lives in me. Yet I have been inexperienced up to now: I have not thought and not firmly known that the Lord is in me. It is He, the All-Holy, who is so sensitive in me to the least impurity of heart; it is He who urges me to drive out from my soul even the seed of sin in the heart. But alas! Satan too is right there, ready to devour me at every step, contending with me for the Lord.

92. Pray for the forgiveness of the sins of others as you pray for the forgiveness of your own sins when they, striking sorrow and tightness to your soul, urge you with pain, contrition of heart, and tears to beseech God for mercy; likewise pray for the salvation of others as for your own. If you attain this and make it a habit, you will receive from the Lord an abundance of spiritual gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit, who loves a soul sympathetic to the salvation of others, because He Himself, the All-Holy Spirit, desires in every way to save all of us, only let we not resist Him or harden our hearts. “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Rom 8:26).

93. We often hear from others or read in the writings of others what God has laid on our minds and hearts, what we ourselves have cherished—that is, often we encounter our dearest thoughts in others and imagine, as if they were taken from us and as if they are new and constitute exclusively our own property. Selfish thoughts! How? Is God alone not the Lord of all minds? Is His Spirit alone not in all who seek truth? Is He alone not our Enlightener, who enlightens “everyone who comes into the world” (Jn 1:9)? Glory to the One, glory to Him who loves all and abundantly gives His spiritual and bodily gifts to all! Glory to Him who does not regard faces and reveals the secrets of His love, almightiness, and wisdom—to “babes” (Lk 10:21).

94. The saints of God are near to believing hearts and, like the most sincere and good friends, in a moment are ready to help the faithful and devout who call upon them in faith and love. We must usually send for earthly helpers and sometimes wait a long time for them to come, but we need not send for these spiritual helpers and wait long: the prayer of the one who prays can in an instant place them at your very heart, and likewise receive the needed help through faith—I mean spiritual help. What I say, I say from experience. I mean the frequent deliverance from sorrows of the heart through the intercession and protection of the saints, especially through the intercession of our Sovereign Mother, the Theotokos. Some may say that it is merely strong faith or firm, decisive confidence in one’s deliverance from sorrow, not the intercession of the saints before God. No. How do I know this? From the fact that if I do not call in my heartfelt prayer certain saints known to me (making no distinction), if I do not see them with the eyes of my heart, then I receive no help whatsoever, no matter how much confidence I nurture in being saved without their help. I am conscious and feel clearly that I receive help on account of those saints whom I call upon, for my living faith in them. This works just as it does in the ordinary order of earthly things. I first see my helpers with heartfelt faith, then, seeing, I ask them also in my heart, invisibly but clearly to myself; then, receiving invisible help in a completely unnoticed way, but tangibly for my soul, I am at the same time given strong conviction that this help comes precisely from them, just as a sick man healed by a doctor is convinced that he received healing precisely from this doctor, not from another and not by himself, but precisely from the doctor. All of this happens so simply that only eyes are needed—to see.

95. I am a man, and in me the mercy, truth, and justice of God continuously work. God now shows mercy and comforts, now punishes and grieves me with sorrows for inner movements of soul opposed to Him. But people similar to me fill the earth. Therefore in them too the Lord manifests His mercy, truth, and justice, just as in me. He acts “all in all” (1Cor 12:6).

96. Let no one think that sin is something of little importance; no, sin is a terrible evil, killing the soul both now and in the age to come. A sinner in the age to come will be bound hand and foot (speaking of the soul) and cast into outer darkness, as the Savior says: “bind his hands and feet and throw him outside into the darkness” (Mt 22:13)—that is, he completely loses freedom of all the powers of the soul, which, being created for free action, suffer through this a kind of death-dealing inactivity for all good: in the soul the sinner senses his powers and at the same time feels that his powers are bound by unbreakable chains: “each one is held captive by the bonds of his own sins” (Prov 5:22); to this add the terrible torment from the very sins, from awareness of his folly during earthly life, from the thought of an angered Creator. And in this present age too, sin binds and kills the soul; who among the God-fearing does not know what sorrow and tightness strikes their soul, what tormentingly burning fire rages in their breast when they have committed some sin? But while binding and killing the soul temporarily, sin kills it eternally if here we do not repent from all our hearts of our sins and transgressions. Here is empirical proof that sin kills the soul temporarily and eternally. If it happens to someone among the God-fearing to go to sleep without repenting of that sin or sins committed during the day that tormented the soul, then this torment will accompany the person all night until he truly repents of the sin in his heart and washes his heart with tears. (This is from experience). The torment of sin will awaken him from sweet sleep because the soul will be in tightness, bound by the chains of sin. Now suppose that a man, going to sleep in some sin and tormented by it, is overtaken by death in the night: is it not clear that the soul will depart to that age in torment, and since after death there is no place for repentance, it will be tormented there according to the measure of its sins. Of this Holy Scripture bears witness (Mt 25:46; Rom 2:6,9; 2Cor 5 and others).

97. Watch yourself—watch your passions, especially in domestic life, where they freely show themselves like moles in a safe place; outside the home your passions usually hide under other more respectable ones, but there is no way to drive out these black moles that undermine the wholeness of our soul.

98. In the soul of a devout, God-fearing person there occurs invisibly a spiritual communion with God. Like a father or a strict teacher, the Lord God now approves, now condemns our thoughts, desires, and intentions; He says that this is good and that is evil, and rewards the good and punishes the evil: and all this is so evident to the soul—right there on the spot.

99. Begin to fulfill the commandments concerning small things, and you will fulfill the commandments concerning great things: the small everywhere leads to the great. Begin to fulfill even the commandment about fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays or the tenth commandment concerning evil thoughts and desires, and you will fulfill all the commandments. “Whoever is untrustworthy with little is untrustworthy with much” (Lk 16:10).

100. O man who dreams of mortal life and thinks not of infinite, heavenly life! Consider: what is your temporal life? It is the constant laying of wood (I mean food) so that the fire of our life burns and does not diminish, so that in our house (I mean the body) there is warmth and so that our constantly passing bodily life is constantly restored by the nourishing principles from the organisms of other living creatures deprived of life for our bodily life. Indeed, what a worthless cobweb is your life, man: you daily twice strengthen it from within with supports for its stability (that is, twice fortify yourself with food and drink) and every night you close your soul in your body, shutting all the senses of the body as if closing the shutters of a house, so that the soul does not live outside the body but in the body, warming and enlivening it. What a cobweb is your life and how easy to tear it! Be humbled and revere the eternal life!

101. Truth is the foundation and variety of all that has been created, and in your deeds (inner and outer), let truth be the foundation of all, especially the foundation of prayer; let all your life, all your deeds, all your thoughts and desires be strung as it were upon truth as a foundation.

102. Make the effort to live for even one day according to God’s commandments, and you will see for yourselves, you will feel in your heart how good it is to do God’s will (and God’s will toward us is our life, our eternal blessedness). Love the Lord with all your heart, at least as much as you love your parents and benefactors; appreciate to the best of your ability His love and benefactions toward you (go through them mentally in your heart: how He gave you existence and with it all blessings, how infinitely much He tolerates your sins, how infinitely much He forgives them for your sincere repentance, in virtue of His only-begotten Son’s suffering and death on the cross, what blessedness He has promised you in eternity if you remain faithful to Him), benefactions that are infinitely great and numerous. Further, love every human being as yourself—that is, do not wish for him anything you do not wish for yourself; think and feel for him as you think and feel for yourself; do not wish to see in him anything you do not wish to see in yourself; let your memory not retain evil done to you by others as you desire that evil done by you be forgotten by others; do not intentionally imagine anything criminal or unclean either in yourself or in another; regard others as well-intentioned as you regard yourself; in general, if you do not clearly see that they are ill-intentioned, do for them what you do for yourself, or at least do not do to them what you do not do for yourself—and you will see what will be in your heart, what tranquility, what blessedness! You will be in paradise before paradise, in heaven before heaven—in paradise on earth. “The kingdom of God”, says the Savior, “is within you” (Lk 17:21). “Whoever abides in love”, teaches the Apostle, “abides in God, and God in him” (1Jn 4:16).

103. Worship God in spirit and in truth. In truth—for example, you say: hallowed be Your name. Do you truly desire in your heart that God’s name be hallowed by the good deeds of people and by yours? You say: Your kingdom come; do you truly desire the coming of God’s kingdom, do you desire to be a dwelling of God’s Spirit rather than a dwelling of sin; don’t you more eagerly desire to live in sins? You say: Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven; are you not seeking your own will rather than God’s? Yes indeed! You say: Give us today our daily bread; don’t you say in your heart something different: I do not need to ask this of You; I have it without asking, let only the destitute cry out so; or do we greedily seek much and are not content with little or with what God has given us? We do not give thanks for what we have as we should. You ask God in prayer: forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors; yet don’t you think: I am not, God knows what great a sinner; I seem to live no worse than others and I have no need to ask forgiveness of my debts or sins; or, praying, don’t you harbor some displeasure, anger, and thus are you boldly lying in your prayer to God? You say: lead us not into temptation; yet don’t you yourself rush, don’t you eagerly press toward all sins without temptations? You say: deliver us from the evil one; yet don’t you yourself live in partnership with the evil one, or with all evil, whose prince is the devil? Watch then, so your tongue is not in discord with your heart; do not lie, watch, to the Lord in your prayer. Keep this always in view, both when you read the Lord’s Prayer and when you read other prayers; observe whether your heart is in harmony with what your tongue speaks?

104. The purer the heart, the more spacious it is, the more it can contain of those loved; the more sinful, the more confined it is, the less able it is to contain those loved—to the point that it is limited to love only of itself and that false love: we love ourselves in things unworthy of an immortal soul: in silver and gold, in licentiousness, in drunkenness, and such things.

105. If the Lord imparts invincible, incomprehensible, divine power to the life-giving Cross, what is wonderful if He imparts incomprehensible power to rebuild our nature—through His most pure, awesome, and life-giving Mysteries of His Body and Blood? O how great You are, O Lord! and how wondrous are Your works! How infinite is Your almightiness! Wherever Your power and grace touch, that itself becomes life-giving.

106. If you wish to correct someone of his faults, do not think to correct him by your means alone: we ourselves spoil the matter more through our own passions—for example, through pride and the irritability arising from it; but “cast your care upon the Lord” (Ps 54:23) and pray to Him who searches “the hearts and minds” (Ps 7:10) with all your heart, so that He Himself may enlighten the mind and heart of the person; if He sees that your prayer breathes with love and comes from all your heart, He will surely fulfill the desire of your heart, and you will soon say, seeing the change in the one for whom you pray: “this is the work of the Most High” (Ps 76:11).

107. Who is it that in flowers so wisely, delicately, beautifully arranges and forms the formless, the invisible, shapeless substance of earth? Who gives it such a wondrous form? Creator, grant us to kiss in flowers Your wisdom, Your goodness, Your almightiness.

108. Our inner dispositions, even when not expressed by external signs, strongly affect the inner disposition of others. This happens constantly, although not everyone notices it. I am angry or have unfavorable thoughts about another: and he feels this and likewise begins to have unfavorable thoughts about me. There is some kind of means of communication of our souls with one another besides bodily senses; and as for the action of the soul on others through the senses, through the sense of sight the soul acts wonderfully on another person, even if he is far from us, if only he is within sight of us and is the only one in the moment when we direct our gaze upon him. Thus we can through sight bring another into an awkward position, into confusion. I have more than once happened to look intently from the window of my house at people passing by the house—and they, as if drawn by some force to that very window from which I looked, would glance at that window and look for a human face in it; some even came into a kind of confusion, suddenly quickened their step, straightened up, adjusted their tie, hat, and so forth. There is some kind of secret here.

109. Distinguish in yourself the life-giving Spirit and the death-dealing spirit that kills your soul. When good thoughts are in your soul, it goes well with you, it is easy; when there is peace and joy in your heart, then in you is a good spirit, the Holy Spirit; but when you have bad thoughts or bad movements of the heart, then it is bad, heavy; when you are inwardly disturbed, then in you is an evil spirit, a deceitful spirit. When an evil spirit is in us, then with heart-constriction and disturbance we usually feel difficulty reaching God with the heart, because the evil spirit binds the soul and does not allow it to rise to God. The evil spirit is a spirit of doubt, unbelief, passions, constriction, sorrow, disturbance; but the good spirit is a spirit of unwavering faith, a spirit of virtues, a spirit of spiritual freedom and breadth, a spirit of peace and joy. By these signs know when the Spirit of God is in you and when it is an evil spirit, and as often as you can raise your heart in thanksgiving to the All-Holy Spirit, who gives you life and sanctifies you, and with all your strength flee doubt, unbelief, and passions, through which the spiritual serpent, thief, and murderer of our souls, creeps into our soul.

110. There are moments in the lives of devout Christians of abandonment by God—moments of diabolic darkness, and then a person from the depths of his heart cries out to God: why have You cast me away from Your face, O never-setting Light? For behold, strange darkness, the darkness of the wretched, malicious Satan, has covered me, my whole soul; it is bitter for the soul to be in the tormentingly dark shadow of his; turn me back, O Savior, to the light of Your commandments and set right the path of my spiritual journey, I earnestly beseech You.

111. Unless you experience the evil workings of the evil spirit, you will not know and will not properly honor the blessings bestowed on you by the good Spirit; without knowing the death-dealing spirit, you will not know the life-giving Spirit. It is only through direct opposites of good and evil, life and death, that we come to know them clearly; unless you are subjected to misfortunes and dangers of bodily or spiritual death, you will not come to know in your heart the Savior, the Giver of Life, who delivers from these misfortunes and from spiritual death. O Jesus is the comfort, joy, life, peace, and breadth of our hearts! Glory to God, wise and all-good, that He permits the spirit of evil and death to tempt and torment us! Otherwise how would we come to value the consolations of grace, the consolations of the Spirit of Consolation, the life-giving one!

112. The Lord God, as Life Itself and the infinite abundance of life. He Himself from eternity, as St. Gregory the Theologian says, moved into Three Persons and remained in Three, that is, God is the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. You will ask, how three Persons in God? I answer: I do not understand how, but I know it must be so and cannot be otherwise. You will ask further: why is the third Person called the Spirit in God and why is He a distinct Person, when God without that is Spirit? I answer: the Divine Spirit is called Spirit in relation to creation: the Lord breathed forth His hypostatic Spirit—and there appeared, by the will of His life-giving Spirit, a countless multitude of spirits: “by the breath of His mouth are all their host” (Ps 32:6); He breathed His Spirit into human substance: “and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7), and from this breathing, humans are born still and will be born to the end of ages according to the commandment: “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28). If the Lord created so many individual personal beings with His Spirit, how then can it be that the Spirit of God Himself is not a Person or a distinct creative Being? “The Spirit breathes where it wills” (Jn 3:8). You see, the Spirit is called Spirit as the Hypostasis of God. If there are countless multitudes of created personal spirits, shall God Himself remain without a Spirit as without His own Person—a distinct, hypostatic one? And the Son, the Wisdom of the Father, is He not a distinct, living necessity in God? Look at yourself. You are a creature; and in you there is such wisdom that many admire you greatly; you sometimes create truly wondrous things, and you are called the creator of these things. Yet you are a small, weak creature. Now, consider, is there no personal Wisdom in God? How can God not have a Creator? How can He not have His living, self-subsisting Wisdom? Look at everything in the world, how wisely all is made! How in all the smallest things visible is astonishing wisdom, a wonderful execution of all-wise thought with astonishing precision, with impeccable purity! How can there not be personal Wisdom in God? Consider: how can God, having created a multitude of wise, personal, intelligent living beings, not have brought forth from Himself personal Wisdom? Is this fitting? Is it possible? Is it in accordance with the perfections of the Creator? Therefore in God there must be hypostatic Wisdom, or the hypostatic Word of the Father, as well as the life-giving Spirit, proceeding from God the Father and resting in the Son. In you there is breath, material, impersonal, but in God, as Life Itself, it is a personal Spirit, not diffused but simple, giving life to all.

113. The unnatural dominion of flesh over spirit is expressed, among other things, in the fact that the spirit seems buried in the flesh, bound by the flesh. This is especially evident when it concerns the service of God: then a man draws near to God only by his lips and flesh, falsely, not with his heart, not with his spirit, not in truth does he bow to Him. Indeed, we often live as though there were no spirit in us, and the highest degree of human depravity is revealed in this: the spirit is completely suppressed and man becomes as it were only flesh. “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years” (Gen 6:3). Look carefully at human acts of worship: you will see how here the flesh strives to gain dominion over the spirit. In the saints, the dominion of spirit over flesh is evident in this: they live by the spirit and in all the world see spirit, in all things—the wisdom, almightiness, and goodness of God; in all phenomena, in all works they see the imprint of spirit; in carnal people, the dominion of flesh over spirit is revealed in this: they see in all only what presents itself to their senses and, as the saying goes, see no further than their nose; a carnal, fleshly man looks at the world and sees it almost like an irrational animal, is not amazed at the wisdom in it, the eternal power and goodness of the Creator; he reads a sacred book—and sees in it only the letter; does he pray: he mechanically runs through prayers in his mind and does not penetrate their spirit, does not know the art of bowing in spirit and in truth. Flesh predominates also in the education of people. (See whether in schools they teach the most important Christian matter—prayer, whether they teach to see God?) Flesh will reign in the world to the end of ages, so that the Lord, “when He comes to judge, will find faith on the earth?” (Lk 18:8)—and unbelief is the work of the flesh, as it was in the men of the first world.

114. It is pleasing to God when a man notices God’s actions in his heart, because He is Light and Truth, but the devil greatly fears this, because he is darkness and falsehood; and darkness does not come to the light so that his deeds not be exposed. The devil through darkness, through deception and falsehood alone is strong: expose his lie, bring it to light, and all disappears. Through deception he draws man into all passions; through deception he lulls people to sleep and does not let them see things as they truly are. A devilish veil lies over very much.

115. Why does a sinful soul not receive forgiveness of its sins before it feels in its whole heart all the senselessness of them, all their destructiveness, all their falseness? Because the heart is our soul; as it committed sins and found them pleasing and admirable, so it must itself repent of them, recognize them as destructive and utterly false. This repentance comes about precisely painfully in the heart, just as the desire for sin typically arises in the heart.

116. Do not be troubled by the malice roaring within you and straining to pour forth in words of bitterness; instead, command it to be silent in you, to be still. Otherwise, once it grows accustomed to your obedience and flows from your tongue, it will overcome you. As water standing behind an earthen dam, once it finds a fissure, washes it larger and larger and seeps through it—and if we do not reinforce it or reinforce it weakly, and finally, with increasing laxity on our part and repeated breaches, the water bursts through powerfully, ever more strongly, until it becomes very difficult or even impossible to stop it—so it is with malice hidden in the human heart: if you let it break through once, and a second time, and a third, it will flow out ever more strongly and, finally, may burst through entirely and flood your dam. Know that waters of malice stand in the soul, as the Psalmist says: “The waters have come up to my soul” (Ps 68:2).

117. When you sin against God and your sins torment and burn you, then seek quickly the one Sacrifice for sins, eternal and living, and cast your sins before the face of this Sacrifice. There is no salvation for you from anywhere else. Do not think to save yourself by yourself.

118. The Lord could have created the whole world—heaven and earth—as His body, or, without creating a world, could have made Himself a temple of body instead; but He was pleased, for your sake, to create a body like yours to save you, and, having created the world from nothing, creates only from a small portion of its substance—His body—to give you life, leaving the world to be what He created it. O, the goodness and mercy of God! We are “of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph 5:30) through partaking of His life-giving Mysteries!

119. The world, as the work of the Living, All-wise God, is full of life: everywhere and in all things is life and wisdom; in all things we see the expression of thought, in the whole and in all parts. This is the true book from which one can, though not as clearly as from revelation, learn to know God. Before the world came into being, there was only the living boundless God; when the world was called from nonbeing into being, God certainly did not become limited—all the fullness of life and boundlessness remained with Him; but this fullness of life and boundlessness expressed itself also in creatures, living and organic, which are innumerably many and all endowed with life.

120. The limitedness of the world and especially of man. The world, as a point of support for bodily creatures, so that they do not vanish in boundlessness. The writings of God’s Word speak more truly and clearly about the world than the world itself or the arrangement of the earth’s layers: the writings of nature within it, being dead and voiceless, express nothing definite. “Where were you”, man, “when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4). Were you with God when He was ordering the universe? “Who has understood the mind of the Lord, and who has been His counselor?” (Is 40:13). And you, geologists, boast that you have understood the mind of the Lord in the building up of the layers of earth, and assert this in defiance of sacred history! You believe more in the dead letters of the earth’s layers, in soulless earth, than in the divinely inspired words of the great prophet and God-seer Moses.

Part One §121-160

121. You wonder how the saints hear us from heaven when we pray to them. How do the rays of the sun descend from heaven and everywhere—over all the earth they shine? The saints are the same in the spiritual world as the rays of the sun in the material world. God is the eternal, life-giving Sun, and the saints are rays of the divine Sun. As the eyes of the Lord constantly look upon the earth and upon those born on earth, so the eyes of the saints cannot help but turn there, where the providential gaze of the Lord turns to His creatures and where their treasure is (their bodies, their deeds, sacred places, the persons entrusted to them). “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21). You know how the heart sees swiftly, far, and clearly (especially the things of the spiritual world); note this in all knowledge, especially in spiritual knowledge, where much is grasped only by faith (by the heart’s vision). The heart is the eye of human existence; the purer it is, the swiftly, farther, and more clearly it sees. But the saints of God had this eye of the soul brought, even during life, to the possible purity for a human, and after death, when they were united with God, by God’s grace it became even brighter and broader within the limits of its vision. Therefore the saints see most clearly, widely, and far; they see our spiritual needs; they hear all who call upon them with all their heart—those whose mental eyes are turned directly to them and are not darkened, not obscured during that turning by doubt and lack of faith, when the eyes of the hearts of the praying ones coincide, so to speak, with the eyes of the invoked. Here is mysterious vision! The experienced one understands what is being said. Therefore, how easy it is to have communion with the saints! One need only purify the heart’s vision, turn it firmly to a particular saint, ask for what is needed—and it will be. But what of the Lord in regard to vision? He is entirely vision, entirely light, entirely knowledge. He always fills heaven and earth and in every place sees all things. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good” (Prov 15:3).

122. Heartfelt faith in the spiritual world, especially in the spiritual all-illuminating and all-vivifying Sun, gladdens and animates the soul that has an unblemished conscience. Faith must reach to the heart’s vision. This means that the soul must become, as it were, above sensibility, above the bodily and dark nature of itself, and penetrate itself—as purely as possible with the heart’s vision—into the spiritual world. There it will be well, there is its true life, its rest and joy. Experience.

123. Imagination and representation are the heart’s vision, or the soul’s, creating or reproducing a certain object: therefore it is swift, instantaneous, bears a spiritual character. It is a daguerreotype or photograph made by the soul of a certain object. Reason is the painter who takes a picture from this photograph.

124. If the Lord were not merciful and patient, would He bear such great offenses from us, would He have become incarnate, suffered, died for you, given you His most pure Body and Blood, at which the Angels look with fear and trembling? Would He deliver you from sins and from spiritual death so infinitely many times? He would have said then: suffer, if you are so ill-disposed, I will deliver you no more, having delivered you until now so much. But now He bears from us all his life a countless multitude of offenses and still waits for our turning. Glorify His love and patience. Imagine what it would be without Him, without His salvation! Dread and fear seize the soul. But unrepentant sinners will finally be overtaken by God’s wrath itself “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom 2:5).

125. When you approach in prayer to the Queen Mother of God, before praying be firmly assured that you will not leave Her without mercy. So to think and so to be assured regarding Her is right and just. She is the All-merciful Mother of the All-merciful God the Word, and of Her mercies, incalculably great and innumerable, all ages and all Christian churches cry out; She is indeed an abyss of goodness and compassion, as is said of Her in the Canon of the Hodegetria (Canon, Song 5, verse 1). Therefore to approach Her in prayer without such assurance would be foolish and presumptuous, and to doubt would offend Her goodness, just as God’s goodness is offended when people approach God in prayer and do not hope to receive what they ask. As people hurry to ask mercy from some high and wealthy person whose mercies all know, whom he has proved merciful through many acts—usually with the most calm assurance and hope of receiving from him what they desire. So in prayer one must not doubt or lose heart.

126. As a mother teaches a child to walk, so the Lord teaches us living faith in Him. The mother stands the child up, leaves him to himself, and goes away; then she tells the child to come to her. The child cries without his mother, wants to go to her, but fears to attempt a step, tries to approach, takes a step and falls. So the Lord teaches the Christian faith in Him, as walking (faith is a spiritual path): so weak is our faith, so beginning, like a child learning to walk. The Lord abandons him from His help and abandons him to the devil or to various misfortunes and sorrows; and then, when help is needed—to be delivered from them (when we have no need of salvation, we are ready not to go to Him), as if He bids one look at Him (look at Him, you must) and go to Him for this help; the Christian tries to do this, opens the eyes of his heart (as a child spreads his legs), tries with them to see the Lord, but the heart, untaught in beholding God, fears its own boldness, stumbles and falls: the enemy and the natural corruption of sinful nature close his opening eyes of the heart, tear him away from the Lord, and he cannot approach; but the Lord is near, ready to take him to Himself, as if in His arms, only come to Him in faith, and—when you make an effort to see Him completely with the eyes of faith in your heart, when you look at Him with the heart’s vision—then He Himself extends the hand of help, as if takes in His arms and drives away the enemies, and the Christian feels that he has fallen into the hands of the Savior Himself. Glory to Your goodness and wisdom, Lord! So in the assaults from the devil and in all sorrows one must vividly perceive in one’s heart, as it were before one’s eyes, the loving mercy of the Savior; look boldly at this mercy, as at an inexhaustible storehouse of goodness and compassion, and beseech Him with all your heart to give us a share of this never-ending source of goodness and spiritual help: and immediately what is asked will be received. The main thing: faith or the heart’s vision of the Lord and hope of receiving from Him, as the All-good, everything. Truly! From experience! Thus the Lord also teaches us to know our extreme moral weakness without Him, to be brokenhearted and to be in a constant state of prayerful disposition!

127. The Christian has no ground whatever in the heart to harbor any malice against anyone; malice, as malice, is the work of the devil; the Christian should have only love in the heart; and since love thinks no evil, one should not think any evil concerning others—for example: without obvious cause I should not think of another that he is evil, proud and so forth, or—if I, for instance, show him respect, then he will become proud—if I forgive an offense, then he will offend me again and mock me. It is necessary that evil not nest in us in any form; and malice is usually very many-formed.

128. Peace and abundance of heart’s life after Communion is the greatest, priceless gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, surpassing all gifts belonging to the body and taken together. Without the peace of soul—amid the tightness and torment of the heart—a man cannot enjoy any blessings, neither material nor spiritual; for him then there exist no enjoyments arising from the sense of truth, good, and beauty, because the very center of his life—the heart, or the inner man—is suppressed and killed.

129. Unite yourself with God in soul through heartfelt faith, and you can do all things. Do strong, invisible, sleepless enemies assail you? You will conquer. Visible, external enemies? You will conquer. Do passions tear you? You will overcome them. Do sorrows overwhelm you? You will drive them away. Does your spirit grow faint? You will gain courage. By faith you can conquer all things and gain the very kingdom of heaven. Faith is the greatest good in earthly life: it unites man with God and in Him makes him strong and victorious. “He who clings to the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord” (1Cor 6:17).

130. The Lord in His goodness gave us undeservedly on our part to see the sun and sunlight and to enjoy it; He will give us to enjoy His inaccessible light as well. Let the light of the sun be a pledge to you of this, but especially the Light Quiet of the holy glory of the Father of Heaven—His only-begotten Son, given to us, and the Spirit of love, given into our hearts.

131. Looking at God’s world, what do I see? I see everywhere extraordinary breadth, the sportiveness of life: in the animal kingdom, among four-legged beasts, among reptiles, insects, birds, among fish. Now the question arises: why then is there narrowness and a sorrowful path of life for man, and especially for those who are zealous for piety? The Lord has poured out everywhere life, plenty, and joy with scope, and all creatures except man glorify the Creator with plenty, life, and sportive joy. Why then is there discord with the general life in me? Am I not a creature of the same Creator? The answer is simple. Our life is poisoned either by ourselves through sin or by the enemy without flesh, especially by him and chiefly among those people who strive in piety. The life of a true Christian is ahead, in the future age; there all joys will unfold for him, full blessedness. Here he is an exile and under punishment: here sometimes all nature is armed against him because of sin, not to speak of the ancient enemy, who, like “a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour” (1Pet 5:8). So I am not troubled that joy and plenty are everywhere in the world and I often have no joy and look gloomily at the joy and scope of God’s creatures. I have an executioner because of sin, this executioner is always with me and beats me. But for me too joys will come, only not here, but in another world.

132. Looking at God’s world, I see everywhere extraordinary divine munificence in gifts of nature: the earth’s surface is, as it were, the richest table, prepared in abundance and variety by the most loving and generous host; the depths of waters likewise serve to nourish man. What can be said of four-legged animals and birds? Here too there is such munificence in providing food and clothing to man! There is no number to the Lord’s mercies. Look what the earth does not provide in summer and autumn! So every Christian, especially a priest, should imitate the mercies of the Lord; let your table be open to all, like the Lord’s table. The miser is an enemy of the Lord.

133. A tree, rooted firmly in the earth, grows and bears fruit. The human soul, rooted in faith and love in God, as if in spiritual roots, likewise lives, grows spiritually, and bears the fruits of virtues pleasing to God, by which the soul lives and will live in the future age. A tree pulled out of the earth with its roots ceases the life it received from the earth through its roots. So the human soul that has lost faith and love in God and does not abide in God, in whom is all its life, dies spiritually. What the earth is for plants, God is for the soul.

134. In order not to be enslaved daily to passions and the devil, you must set yourself a goal, keep it constantly in view, and strive toward it, overcoming in the Lord’s name all obstacles. What is this goal? The heavenly Kingdom, the divine palace of glory, prepared for the faithful from the foundation of the world. But as a goal is achieved by certain means, it is necessary to have these means at your disposal. What are these means? Faith, hope, and love, especially love. Believe, hope, love—love especially, despite any obstacles—God above all, and every neighbor as yourself. You have no strength to keep these priceless treasures of human spirit in your heart; draw near to God often in love, ask, seek, knock: you will receive, you will find, it will be opened (Mt 7:7-8)—faithful is He who promised. While walking, sitting, lying down, conversing, working, at all times, pray in your heart for the gift of faith and love. You have not yet asked as you should, with fervor and steadfastness; you had no firm resolve to gain them. From now on say: behold, I begin.

135. When on the path to God you encounter obstacles placed by the devil—doubt and unbelief of the heart, also sometimes heartfelt malice toward people who deserve unconditional respect and love, as well as other passions—be not troubled by them, but know that they are the smoke and stench of the enemy, which will pass away at a single gesture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

136. In the education of youth, what should one strive for above all? For the soul to gain “enlightened eyes of the heart” (Eph 1:18). Do you not notice that our heart is the first agent in our life, and in almost all our knowledge, the heart’s vision of certain truths (the idea) precedes intellectual knowledge. It happens so in knowledge: the heart sees all at once, undividedly, instantaneously; then this single act of the heart’s vision is transmitted to the intellect, and in the intellect it is analyzed into parts—divisions appear: what comes first, what comes after; the heart’s vision in the intellect receives its analysis. The idea belongs to the heart, not to the intellect—to the inner man, not to the outer. Therefore it is a very important matter to have enlightened eyes of the heart in all knowledge, but especially in knowledge of the truths of faith and the rules of morality.

137. Future life is the perfect purity of the heart, gradually purified now, which is most often closed, darkened by sin and the devil’s breath, but sometimes—by the action of God’s grace—is clarified and beholds God, united with Him most sincerely, in prayer and the Mystery of Communion.

138. How should one keep the feasts? We keep them either by celebrating an event (to comprehend the greatness of the event, its purpose, its fruits for the faithful), or a person, as for example: the Lord, the Mother of God, the Angels and saints (to comprehend that person’s relation to God and mankind, their beneficial influence on God’s Church in general). One must comprehend the history of the event or person, draw near to the event or person in heart, absorb them in oneself; otherwise the feast will be imperfect, not pleasing to God. Feasts should have influence on our life, should enliven, inflame our faith (hearts) in future blessings and nourish good, pious morals. But they pass for the most part with sin, just as they are encountered unthinkingly by a faithless, cold heart, often not at all prepared to feel those great deeds of God which God has granted through the known celebrated person or event.

139. Whatever evil may be in your soul, do not cast everything that is in the oven onto the table. Let it be known to God alone, who knows all that is hidden and secret; do not show all your uncleanness to people, do not infect them with the breath of the evil hidden in you; close the oven: let the smoke of evil be extinguished in you. Confess your sorrow to God alone—that your soul is full of evil and your life is close to hell; but show people a bright, kind face. What is it to them, your foolishness? Or else reveal your spiritual illness to your spiritual father or a friend, so they might instruct, guide, and restrain you.

140. Gazing at heaven, behold there the Lord Jesus, from where He appeared to the protomartyr Stephen and to Saul, and beseech Him for your salvation. His appearing does not mean that He then only, as it were, opened the heavens and looked at them from the open heavens, but that He always sees us all from heaven, all our deeds, words, thoughts, and intentions, as you yourself have been assured of this by many experiences, lifting your eyes to heaven to the Lord and receiving from Him wondrous and great help: it means only that in those instances He revealed Himself, appeared in the heavens.

141. To sin is a great loss and folly; for the sinful man despises himself and withdraws from human society, because the inner heartfelt narrowness and the worm of the heart make all society difficult for him—society that does not correspond to him in scope and breadth of life. For the sinner the vast world of God is narrow, because the world is the work of the all-holy and righteous God; but the sinner, not obedient to God’s laws, the laws of love and peace, is an outcast of God’s creation, who has no place in the world; that is why it is narrow for him: he is pursued by God, by his own conscience, pursued by all God’s creation.

142. When thoughts of doubt, unbelief, blasphemy come—who suffers: the subject about which there is doubt, in whom there is unbelief, who is blasphemed, or those who doubt, disbelieve, blaspheme? These latter. They fear then “fear where there is no fear” (Ps 13:5); they torment themselves with their doubt, unbelief, blasphemy; but the subject of their agony remains firm, unmoved, and takes obvious victory over them by forcing them to change their thoughts about it for their own peace, and does not let them rest until they repent of their former false thoughts about it and receive favorable, true thoughts. Therefore it is foolish to waver and be troubled, much more to lose heart and grow despondent when thoughts of doubt, unbelief, blasphemy, and similar things come during prayer or at another time. This is all the deception of Satan.

143. Malice or some other passion, settling in the heart, strives—by an absolute law of evil—to pour itself out externally. That is why it is customary to say of an evil or angry person that he vented his malice on such a one or vented his anger on such a one. The trouble with evil is that it does not remain only in the heart but strives to spread outward. From this it is already clear that the source of evil is mighty and has a broad domain in which it reigns. “The whole world lies in evil” (1Jn 5:19). As vapors or gases, accumulated in great quantity in an enclosed space, strive to be expelled outward, so passions, as the breath of the spirit of evil, having filled the human heart, also strive to spread from one person to another and infect the souls of others with their stench.

144. If God has given us being—the greatest gift of goodness itself—if, after we fell from Him and fell from life into death, He gave us, for our regeneration, for bringing us to life, His Son, then how insignificant are all the other blessings we ask of Him in prayer, that He would grant them to us at the first sincere word of faith, if they are truly necessary for us, and how inexcusable we are when we doubt receiving them from God in prayer! The Savior plainly said: “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Mt 7:7).

145. Here, in the world of vanity, in the world of adultery and sin, constantly and often imperceptibly, the worm and moth of corruption wear away our souls and bodies, and “the thieves” of thought “break in and steal” our “treasures” (Mt 6:19)—the “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). What then is the sure means against this constant corruption of sin, against these thieves of thought? Prayer of repentance and faith. It revives, resurrects the soul of ours that is decaying in deceptive desires; it drives away the thieves of thought; it is a scourge to them, and for us a source of strength, life, and salvation. Glory be to God for this! Prayer both preserves and delivers us from sin. With prayerful faith one lives well, for in prayer we live with the Lord, who promised all blessings to those who ask: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks it will be opened” (Mt 7:7-8). Glory, Lord, to Your all-true words! Lord! Give to all who ask of You through my unworthiness the various blessings and the desires of their hearts. Amen—let it be!

146. If you wish the Lord to grant your prayer heartfelt faith more quickly, endeavor with all your heart to speak and act with people sincerely and by no means be double-minded with them. When you are straightforward and trusting with people, then the Lord will give you straightforwardness and sincere faith also in your relation to God. The Lord does not easily accept in prayer one who is not straightforward with people, making him feel that he is insincere in relation to people and therefore cannot be wholly sincere in relation to God without spiritual anguish.

147. Man, subject to passions, what do you need? Life, you say. What do you labor for? For life. But are you living a true life? Reason and experience force me to say no. So what makes up your life? Faith, hope, and love—reason and experience tell me. The life of our soul is God, living faith in Him and love for Him; love for people like myself—they are the peace and breadth of my heart; without them I am a victim of sin, a slave and bondsman of passions; in sorrow and narrowness does my life pass.

148. I rest in Christ here too, and rest with Christ; how then should I not believe that after my death eternal rest in Him awaits me after struggle with earthly enemies! For me it is hard and torturous here without Christ; how then should I not believe that it will be even more torturous for me without Him there, when He finally casts me away from His face! So the present state of our souls foreshadows the future. The future will be a continuation of the present inner state, only in changed form as to the degree of it: for the righteous it will turn into the fullness of eternal glory; for sinners—into the fullness of eternal torments.

149. “It is good for me to cling to God” (Ps 72:28), says David, having experienced the sweetness in prayer and the praise of God. The same is confirmed by other people, and also by me, a sinner. Note: even here—on earth—it is good, it is well to cling to God (when we are in sinful flesh, which has much of its own pleasant or unpleasant). How much more good it will be to be united with God there—in heaven! And the blessedness of clinging to God here, on earth, is the image and pledge of the blessedness of clinging to God after death—in eternity. You see how good, merciful, and true the Creator is; to assure you of future blessedness arising from union with Him, He gives you to experience the beginning of this blessedness here—on earth, when you sincerely approach Him. Yes, my invisible soul indeed rests here in the invisible God; therefore, even more after its separation from the body will it rest in Him.

150. The spirit is strong, mighty; therefore it easily bears heavy matter; but flesh is slow, powerless, and therefore heavy matter easily subdues it. Therefore God, as if nothing, bears the whole world by the strong Word of His (cf. Hebr 1:3); so likewise the spirit of man, graced by God, easily, with God’s help, subdues its own flesh, even the flesh of others—their spirit (as we see in the saints), easily in prayer grasps the letter of the word, transforming it all into spirit; but the fleshly man at every step submits to his own flesh and is burdened by the letter of prayer, which he has no strength to transform into spirit, being himself flesh, or—to penetrate with his unclean, besotted spirit into its pure, holy spirit.

151. Man constantly perishes from sin and needs a constant daily savior. This savior is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; call upon Him inwardly with a living, clear-sighted faith in your salvation, and He will save you! Thus He has wondrously saved me an innumerable multitude of times; this salvation was as clear as, for example, a deliverer comes into a prison and leads out the prisoner. The priest must himself experience the power of faith and the sweetness of prayer and the forgiveness of sins, and that which is sometimes unsuccessful, and spiritual sorrows when they strike, and gracious consolations, so that in prayer to God for the faithful he might say: grant them such a good as You always grant it to me the unworthy—so that he might ask for everything from his own experience.

152. He is near to his heart, it is said of two unequal persons, one of whom patronizes the other. And he who has been deemed worthy of patronage from a superior and nearness to his heart knows this and mutually is himself near to him in his heart. So it is between God and those who serve Him from a pure heart: the heart of these people is always near to God, and they are near to God’s heart. So it should be in the prayer of every Christian: praying, we must be unfailingly near to God in heart. Good, sincere relations of ours with people should be transferred to God as well.

153. Remember that you are always walking before the face of the Sweetest Jesus. Say to yourself often: I want to live so that my life may gladden my Love, crucified for me on the cross. Above all, I will take for myself a companion and helpmate of my life the holy Love, embracing all in my heart, thirsting for the salvation of all, rejoicing with the rejoicing and weeping with the weeping: this especially will comfort my Comforter Christ.

154. Parents and educators! Guard your children with all care from caprices before you; otherwise children will quickly forget the value of your love, infect their hearts with malice, early lose the holy, sincere, burning love of the heart, and when they reach full age will bitterly complain that in youth they were too much indulged and their heart’s caprices were too much gratified. Caprice is the seed of heart’s corruption, the rust of the heart, the moth of love, the seed of malice, an abomination to the Lord.

155. In the temple especially the mystery of cleansing from sins is accomplished. Reverence then to the place where the cleansing of your spiritual uncleannesses takes place, where you are reconciled to God, where you receive the true life of the spirit. How many times the Lord has given me here the cleansing of my sins, without which I could not enjoy God’s gifts: the greatest gift of life, the gifts of peace and joy and material blessings! Glory to You, Jesus, Son of God! You are “the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”! (1Jn 2:2).

156. Nothing is more changeable than matter; it changes in millions of forms naturally, according to the laws of the Creator: not to speak of miraculous changes, for example, fire into dew, water into blood, water into wine, a staff into a serpent—even man sometimes changes matter into thousands of forms. What then should be said about God, who created all things? The property of matter is changeability. The Lord does not do this to a rational spirit and does not wish to: the property of spirit is immutability. But perfecting in good is the work of rational, created spirit. This is the triumph of spirit over matter—that spirit changes it into thousands of forms. Note, for example, how this spirit changes matter in the plant kingdom, how infinitely varied are the forms of plants, all from one earth: one sunlight, one air, one water, one earth. And the bodies of animals—how varied they are! So then, the property of matter is changeability; by this condition the world was created with all its variety. Glory to the One eternally immutable God—the all-powerful Creator! If matter were immutable, then God would not be all-powerful. Glory to the spiritual nature! May it always subdue the material nature! Ask God to give you immutability in good.

157. Why is it that we remember human offenses and grow angry and malicious at those who have offended us, but we very quickly forget the devil’s offenses, the most evil, most harmful, and continual ones, although we may have been offended by him a thousand times a day; meanwhile we hold one offense from some person on our heart, sometimes for more than a day? This is the devil’s deception! The devil skillfully deceives us: offending us himself, he always hides behind our self-love, as if wishing to please us at first through the stirring of a certain passion, although afterwards he always kills, and we suffer bitterly from him for our foolish, senseless self-love. As for offenses caused by others, he always magnifies them a hundredfold and presents them in a false light: and again here he hides behind our self-love, as if being zealous for our welfare, which others are supposedly trying to destroy with their offenses.

158. Two forces, completely opposite to each other, influence me: a good force and an evil force, a life-giving force and a death-bringing force. As spiritual forces, both are invisible. The good force, by my free and sincere prayer, always drives away the evil force, and the evil force is strong only by the evil hidden in me. In order not to suffer continuous assaults of the evil spirit, one must constantly have in the heart the Prayer of Jesus: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me. Against the invisible (the devil)—the invisible God; against the strong—the Strongest.

159. If men—weak, fleeting, mortal beings—do so many great and wonderful deeds with the powers and abilities given them by God; if the word of one man is obeyed sometimes by many millions of men, then what will not the Giver of Life of mankind do, what will not obey His word? Remember the words of the centurion: “I”, he says, “am a man under authority, but having soldiers under me, I say to one: Go, and he goes, and to another: Come, and he comes, and to a third: Do this, and he does” (Lk 7:8). Further, if many animals are endowed with the art of making various wonderful things which man could not make—animals which we tread underfoot, which are so insignificant and weak—then what will not the Creator of all do, who has lavishly endowed all with every art, every ability and strength! If inanimate plants, “existing today and cast into the oven tomorrow” (Mt 6:30), by His word are formed into such tender and beautiful forms, if all matter we see is subjected to His word and transformed to an immeasurable infinity by His command (through the agency of only five elements), then who still, seeing all this, will demand pledges of His almightiness! Wonderful are Your works, O Lord! At every step, in every moment of life. Heaven and earth are full of the glory of Your wisdom, the glory of Your goodness, the glory of Your almightiness! You are not only Yourself the wise Creator and constantly show Yourself as a wise Creator, but You have given Your creatures creative ability and they create according to Your word wonderful and useful things with the powers given them. O, in what majesty You are clothed! How we have debased ourselves, our nature with sins; but how precious, how exalted we are in God’s eyes! God did not spare for us His Son, but clothed Him in our flesh, in our whole nature—for our salvation; prepared for us from the foundation of the world an eternal kingdom; the good Angels rejoice over our conversion; but what do we do? We do not even wish to know that and ever more debase and destroy our soul with various vices and worldly attachments. It is sad, inexpressibly sad to look at man—this creature created in God’s image, especially at a Christian, deemed worthy of such a high calling, so honored and benefited by God.

160. Forced prayer develops hypocrisy, makes one incapable of any occupation requiring reflection, and makes man sluggish to everything, even to the fulfillment of his duties. This should convince all those who pray in such a manner to correct their prayer. One should pray willingly, with energy, from the heart. “Do not pray to God in sorrow or in need (unwillingly)”, says the Lord, “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2Cor 9:7).

Part One §161-200

161. In all handmade temples of the bodies of pious Christians there is an intelligent light—the soul, and that light is from the intelligent Sun—God, whom we see in the world as the soul is seen in the body. I notice how the intellectual Sun—God—enters and shines in my soul: for then it is easy for me, warm, and bright, and how it withdraws from it and leaves it in darkness and suffering. As in material nature darkness is caused by the withdrawal or concealment of the sun, so in spiritual nature darkness comes from the withdrawal of the intellectual Sun from our soul and its covering with the darkness of wretchedness. As in material nature there is always some remainder of light even after the sunset of the sun because of its incomparable magnitude, so in the soul there remains some remainder of light even after the withdrawal of the spiritual Sun because of His omnipresence and because of the comparative powerlessness of the prince of darkness, who cannot, without God’s permission, completely darken the soul. But one should fear that, as the Savior said, “darkness does not overcome us” completely (Jn 12:35).

162. When you receive healing from any illness whatsoever, give thanks to the Lord with the following brief doxology: Glory to You, Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of the beginningless Father, You alone “who heal every disease and every infirmity among men” (Mt 4:23)—because You have had mercy on me, a sinner, and have delivered me from my illness, not allowing it to develop and kill me according to my sins. Grant me from now on, Master, the strength to firmly do Your will for the salvation of my wretched soul and for Your glory, with Your beginningless Father and Your consubstantial Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

163. What is a pure heart? It is meek, humble, guileless, simple, trusting, truthful, unsuspicious, unmalicious, good, disinterested, not envious, not adulterous.

164. My soul! Remember your heavenly dignity and be not troubled over fleeting and worthless things. Respect in other people too their heavenly dignity and do not dare to offend or hate them over something fleeting. With all your strength love the spiritual and heavenly and despise the material and earthly. Remember the words of your Savior: Give us this day our daily bread—only for today. Great Christian wisdom is hidden in these words. Remember too how the Lord Himself showed in His life the example of unconcern for food and was content with only voluntary offerings: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (Jn 4:34).

165. You hate an enemy? You are foolish. Why? Because when the enemy pursues you, you are also pursuing yourself inwardly; for tell me, is it not persecution—is it not the cruelest persecution—to torture yourself with hatred toward an enemy? Love your enemy, and you will be wise. Oh, if you knew what a triumph, what blessedness it is to love an enemy and do him good! Thus the Son of God, thus God in the Holy Trinity triumphed and triumphs by His love over the ungrateful and ill-disposed human race; thus the saints of God triumphed over their enemies, loving them and doing them good. “We were sinners when Christ died for us… If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (Rom 5:8,10).

166. Do not grow despondent in your struggle with the fleshless enemy, but glorify the Lord even in sorrow and tightness, who has deemed you worthy to suffer struggle with the cunning serpent for His sake and to be wounded every hour for Him; for if you had not begun to live piously and strive to unite yourself with God, the enemy would not attack you or torment you.

167. Glory to You, Savior, All-mighty Power! Glory to You, Savior, Ever-present Power! Glory to You, Most merciful Womb! Glory to You, Ear ever open to hear the prayer of me, a wretch, to have mercy on me and save me from my sins! Glory to You, most bright Eyes, always looking upon me kindly and seeing through all my hiddenness! Glory to You, glory to You, glory to You, Sweetest Jesus, my Savior!

168. Heartfelt faith is necessary for man, because the light of our mind is very limited; it contains but little intelligent light, while the Lord God is boundless Light, and the world is an abyss of His almightiness and wisdom, whereas in us there is only an insignificant, so to speak, drop of His strength and wisdom, because we could contain in our mortal body only as much as He has given, no more.

169. The earth is solid and slow, although it moves around the sun very swiftly; water is liquid and fast, and so they say “swift current”; air is even more liquid, thinner, and faster, and so it moves, for example in winds, very swiftly; light is even thinner and faster, and in one second it travels an incredible distance. If light is so thin and travels an enormous distance in the smallest fraction of time, then how thin and swift should the created spirit be; finally, how should the uncreated Spirit—God Himself—be? How is He immeasurable? If light in a second spreads with terrifying speed, how swiftly the uncreated Light spreads in created rational spirits—the Source of all light and all creation. Finally, how does the Light who created all embrace all His creations, all the abysses of worlds? Glory to You, immaterial, uncreated Light, enlightening “every man coming into the world”! (Jn 1:9).

170. Most people carry voluntarily in their hearts the weight of Satan, but have become so accustomed to it that they often do not feel it and even increase it imperceptibly. Sometimes, however, the malicious enemy intensifies tenfold his weight in them, and then they become terribly despondent, lose courage, murmur, and blaspheme God’s name. The usual means of driving away sadness for people of this age is evenings, cards, dances, theaters. But these remedies afterward only increase the tedium and torment of the heart. If, fortunately, they turn to God, then the weight falls from their heart, and they see clearly that their heart previously bore an enormous weight, although they often did not feel it. Oh, how many people “have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of Living Water, and have hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold water” (Jer 2:13). Many of these broken cisterns are in people—almost each one has his own. The broken cisterns are our hearts and our passions.

171. When you see defects and passions in a neighbor, pray for him; pray for each one, even for your enemy. If you see a brother who is proud and stubborn, relating haughtily to you or to others, pray for him, that God enlighten his mind and warm his heart with the fire of His grace. Say: “Lord, teach Your servant, fallen into devilish pride, meekness and humility, and drive from his heart the darkness and burden of Satan’s pride!” If you see a malicious one, pray: “Lord, do good to this servant of Yours by Your grace!” If you see one who is mercenary and covetous, say: “Our treasure is imperishable and our wealth inexhaustible! Grant to this servant of Yours, created in Your image and likeness, to know the deception of riches, and that all earthly things are vanity, shadow, and dream. As grass are all the days of man, or like a spider’s web; and You alone are our wealth, rest, and joy!” When you see one who is envious, pray: “Lord, enlighten the mind and heart of this servant of Yours to know the great, numberless, and unsearchable gifts of Yours, which he has received from Your countless mercies; in the blindness of his passion he has forgotten You and Your rich gifts, and counts himself poor, though rich in Your blessings, and therefore looks covetously at the blessings of Your servants, to whom You, O ineffable Goodness, grant each according to his strength and according to the intention of Your will. Take away, All-good Master, the devil’s veil from the eyes of my servant’s heart, and grant him heartfelt contrition and tears of repentance and thanksgiving, that the enemy may not rejoice over him, caught alive in his will, and may not tear him from Your hand.” When you see a drunkard, say in your heart: “Lord, look mercifully upon this servant of Yours, deceived by the deceitfulness of the belly and carnal pleasure; grant him to know the sweetness of temperance and fasting and the fruits flowing from them.” When you see one passionate about foods and finding his blessedness in them, say: “Lord, our Sweetest Food, never perishing, but abiding unto eternal life! Cleanse this servant of Yours from the filth of gluttony, all flesh becoming, and alien to Your Spirit, and grant him to know the sweetness of Your life-giving spiritual Food, which is Your Flesh and Blood and Your holy, living, and effectual Word.” Thus, or in a similar manner, pray for all who sin, and do not dare despise anyone for his sin or take revenge on him, for this would only increase the wounds of the sinner—correct by counsel, by warnings, and by punishments, which should serve as means to stop or restrain evil within the bounds of moderation.

172. From the action of two opposite forces in our heart, one of which strongly opposes the other and violently, cunningly breaks into our heart, always killing it, while the other chastely is offended by every uncleanness, quietly withdraws from the least heart-uncleanness, but when it acts in us, then calms, sweetens, vivifies, and gladdens our heart—from these two personal opposite forces it is easy to be convinced that certainly both the devil exists as the eternal murderer of men and Christ exists as the eternal Life-giver and Savior; one is darkness and death, the other is Light and life. Therefore, God-lover, if you sometimes notice in your mind and heart extreme darkness, sorrow, gloom, tightness, and unbelief as a force strongly opposing the faith in God, then know that in you is the force hostile to Christ—the devilish force. This dark and killing force, having crept into our heart through some sin of the heart, often does not allow us to call upon Christ and the saints, hides them behind the mist of unbelief. Why? In order to torment man, because faith saves us from its tricks. But by this very fact it proves that there is a powerful force opposed to it—Christ God—to which it does not allow us to approach through the abomination of unbelief, and which by means of our faith crushes it and holds it itself in chains of darkness for the future judgment (Juda 1:6). Therefore, it is necessary to make every effort to call upon Christ the Savior with faith. Every Christian necessarily needs the habit of quickly turning to God with requests for all things (as weakness turns to the Source of all strength and all good): “with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil 4:6), “give thanks in all circumstances” (1Thes 5:18)—and with praise like the Angels who cry out forever: Alleluia.

173. The greatest gift of God, which we need most and which we receive very often from God as a result of our prayer, is peace of heart, as the Savior says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). And rejoice and count yourselves rich, possessing everything, when you receive peace.

174. Let everyone constantly remember that he is God’s both in soul and body, and in all needs of soul and body depends in every moment of his being on God; therefore let him turn to Him each time he feels any need (of soul or body), when, for example, his spiritual or physical being is constrained, that is, when sorrows strike him (spiritual ailments) or passions strike him (physical ailments), when the elements threaten him with their inconstancy (fire, water, air, storm), when he undertakes to do something. Let him then remember the One Creator, who created all from nonbeing and gave to His creatures diverse powers to do many and different deeds.

175. Every good thought presupposes in us a good, higher principle, sacredly teaching our soul. This is evident from the fact that every good seems, as it were, to hide somewhere in us, and we try in vain to contain in our heart what was formerly, as it were, its possession. How true are the Apostle’s words: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1Cor 4:7).

176. We notice in ourselves a struggle of faith with unbelief, of good force with evil, and in the Church of the spirit of Church with the spirit of the world. There in the light of the spirit you clearly distinguish two opposite sides: the side of light and the side of darkness, good and evil, churchiness and worldliness, unbelief. Do you know why? From the struggle of two opposite forces: God’s force and the devil’s force. The Lord acts in those sons who submit to Him, and the devil in the sons of disobedience (“the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience”) (Eph 2:2). And I often feel in myself the struggle of two opposite forces. When I stand in prayer, sometimes the evil force weighs painfully and plunges my heart so that it cannot rise to God.

177. The truer and stronger the means that unite us with God (prayer and repentance), the more the opponent of God and ours directs destructive actions against it; he uses for this everything: our body inclined to laziness, the weakness of the soul, its attachment to earthly goods and cares, doubt so close to all, little faith, unbelief, foul, cunning, and blasphemous thoughts, heaviness of heart, darkening of mind—all is directed by the action of the enemy against inattentive ones to make us stumble in prayer, on this ladder that leads us up to God. That is why there are very few sincere, zealous men of prayer; that is why Christians rarely make confession and Communion; perhaps half would not confess if civil law did not command everyone annually to be at confession and Holy Communion. Those who have experienced know all this.

178. Our strength, our soul, is invisible; in animals their soul is invisible; in plants their strength and life are invisible; all the material world exists and moves by invisible force (the laws of nature). In the heavenly dwellings there are pure heavenly forces, devoid of all materiality. All heavenly and earthly, high and low, is brought to the one almighty Force that produced all force in heaven and on earth. So let all force praise the One Force in Three Persons—the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And those born of earth let them praise it above all with the all-uniting force of love, spreading life and blessedness everywhere.

179. For a long time I did not know clearly how necessary the strengthening of our soul is by the Holy Spirit. But now the Merciful One has granted me to know how necessary it is. Yes, it is necessary every minute of our being, as breathing is necessary—necessary in prayer and in all of life; without His strengthening our soul is constantly inclined to every sin and hence to spiritual death; it grows weak, becomes completely powerless from the evil entering the heart, and becomes powerless for good; without strengthening from the Holy Spirit you feel how the heart is undermined by various evil and is ready every minute to sink into the abyss of it. Then our heart must stand on a rock. And this rock is the Holy Spirit: He strengthens our powers, and if a man prays, He strengthens his heart in faith and hope of receiving what is asked; He inflames his soul with love for God; He breathes bright, good thoughts into the soul, strengthening mind and heart; if a man does various deeds, He strengthens his heart by a sense of the importance and necessity of his labor and by unshakable patience, which overcomes all difficulties; He, when dealing with people of different states and both sexes, breathes respect for the person of man, who is equally the image of God, whoever he may be, redeemed by the blood of Christ God, and draws his heart and attention away from his sometimes very unseemly external appearance, clothing, his rudeness in word and manner. He is the one who unites us all with love as children of the Heavenly Father, and in Christ Jesus teaches us to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven…

180. Picture that you see the inaccessible Light from which the light of the sun, moon, and stars came forth—that you see that infinite Love that sent into the world “His only begotten Son… that the world might be saved by Him” (Jn 3:16-17) from eternal torments—that you see that primordial Beauty from which all variety and beauty in the world comes, the variety and beauty of plants, stones, shells, fish, birds, animals, all human beauty! Picture that you see the loving Creator shining with inaccessible light of His perfections of heaven and earth. What will you then feel? And indeed, Christian faith prepares all of us for this vision. Note about plants: in plants is evident (1) wise Mind, showing through in all parts of the plant; (2) life-giving force, binding and holding all parts of the plant in proper relation; and (3) almightiness, with which infinite Wisdom transforms the formless substance in itself with such ease, making it serve infinite intentions and purposes of His. “How great are Your works, O Lord!” (Ps 91:6). “Your understanding is beyond me” (Ps 138:6).

181. As distant objects on earth, although they are large, if the sun does not reflect in them, are not seen at all from far away, but if the sun reflects, then even small ones are seen and even those very distant shine—so among men: those in whom the eternal Sun of righteousness—God—does not reflect with His perfections are noticed only at close distance by very few, but if the Sun of righteousness reflects in them, then all see them from afar, all praise them, people of all places and times (the saints), and some of them shine like the sun, others like the moon, others like stars.

182. Contemplating God’s creatures and seeing the infinite multitude of them, I see myself elevated above all their multitudes by the image and likeness of God, by reason and freedom, by the ability to contemplate with my mind all of them and to marvel at the wise and all-good Creator in them! Oh, how I should stand in awe before my Creator! Oh, how honored should be for me the authors of my being—my father and my mother. They gave me being in time—for time and eternity; they introduced me, by the will of God who created me in my mother’s womb, into the magnificent palace of the world—so that in the appointed time the Creator would introduce me into the heavenly palace.

183. A state or any society is a body. As in the body all members together and each separately are placed in their place by God, so also in the body social each is placed in his place by God, whereby the very deeds of each become the cause of one or another place.

184. Everyone sees that light pours on the earth from the sky, for the sun, moon, and stars shine on us from the heavenly circle. This indicates to us that the uncreated intelligent Light—the Lord our God—dwells especially in the heavens, and from Him descends to us all light, both material and spiritual, the light of mind and heart. “The true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world” (Jn 1:9). “God is love” (1Jn 4:16). All thoughts, feelings, and dispositions of heart, tending to the destruction of love and to the sowing of enmity, are from the devil; write this on your heart and hold to love in all ways. “Hold fast to love” (1Cor 14:1). Heed: what is contrary to the carnal, old, sinful man—that you do, walk all your life against it. This is the purpose of your life and at the same time your glory in Christ Jesus. “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). Establish further in your heart the following truth: one thing deserves all our hatred—that is sin or vice, but toward men exclusively nurture love. Clear is the royal law: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39).

185. When during prayer despondency and gloom takes hold of your heart, know that this comes from the devil, striving in all ways to make you stumble in prayer. Be strong, take courage, and by remembrance of God drive away these deadly sensations. Note: if not in thoughts, then in the heart the enemy often strives to blaspheme the name of the Almighty God. What is heart-blasphemy against God? Doubt, unbelief, despondency, impatience of God’s chastisements, and murmuring—all passions. By unbelief in the truth and goodness of God the enemy spews blasphemy against the truth, goodness, and almightiness of God; by despondency—also against His goodness; in general, by the outburst of human passions, he blasphemes the all-good Providence and truth of God.

186. Establish in your mind and heart the truth that the invisible plays the first role in all the world, in all beings, and when the invisible leaves a certain being, the latter loses life and is destroyed, so that the visible in beings, without the invisible, constitutes only a mass of earth. I and all men live by the invisible principle.

187. Darkness of ignorance about God, about themselves, and about the enemies of their salvation covers men; these enemies easily rob the mental house of our soul, its mental wealth.

188. When it is said to the inner man: “Wake up, sleeper, and rise from the dead” (Eph 5:14), then it means the actual sleep of the soul, very like ordinary bodily sleep. Likewise, when it is said: “My soul, arise, why are you sleeping?”, it means the actual sleep of the soul, not merely figuratively. When the body sleeps, it relaxes from all sides and becomes insensible: so the soul, sleeping the sleep of sin, weakens in powers and becomes insensible to all that concerns faith, hope, and love. Tell it, for example, that the Son of God came down to earth for you and became man to save you from eternal death, explain to it His saving teaching, His miracles, His sufferings, His death on the cross, His resurrection and ascension to heaven, His second coming—it does not receive this, does not feel God’s benefits, it sleeps, completely sleeps to faith, hope, and love. It does not fear the righteous Judge, future torments, the worm that does not sleep, the fire that does not go out. It sleeps—does not hear, does not see, does not feel. Remarkably, bodily sleep also begins from the heart, the heart falls asleep first of all, then the body. In the sleeping one the eyes are shut and do not see, the ears do not hear, and so in the soul sleeping the sleep of sin; but the soul should always watch with the heart’s eyes, even during sleep, as it is written: “I sleep, but my heart is awake” (Song 5:2).

189. You could not help but notice that all strength is in the heart: light on the heart—and it is good for the whole man; heavy on the heart—and all is bad for him; but you can find this lightness only in faith and therefore especially in the Church, as the place of faith par excellence. Here God touches your hearts with cleansing grace and gives you the power to bear His light yoke. That is the great secret, worth knowing to all. At lightness of heart a man is ready to run and leap: that is why David leapt playing before the ark (Pascha Canon, Song 5, tropar 3, 2Sam 6:16).

190. When others revile you and you are troubled and pained in heart because of it, this means you have pride, and it is pride that must be wounded and driven from your heart by external disgrace. So do not rage at mockery and do not harbor hatred toward those who hate and revile you, but love them as your physicians, whom God has sent you to teach you and instruct you in humility, and pray to God for them. “Bless those who curse you” (Mt 5:44)—say: they are not reviling me, but my passion; they are not beating me, but this little snake that nests in my heart and shows itself painfully there when reviling is uttered; I am comforted by the thought that perhaps good people will drive it out from there with their sharp words, and then my heart will not hurt. Thank God for external disgrace: one who endures disgrace here will not suffer it in the next age. “May all my sins be forgiven” (Is 40:2). “Give us peace, for You have given us all things” (Is 26:12).

191. When you pray for forgiveness of your sins, always strengthen yourself with faith and trust in God’s mercy, ready always to forgive our sins at sincere prayer, and fear in all ways that despair does not enter your heart, expressed by heavy despondency and forced tears. What are your sins compared to God’s mercy, whatever they may be, as long as you sincerely repent of them! But it often happens that a man prays and in his heart inwardly does not hope that his sins will be forgiven, counting them, as it were, above God’s mercy. For this reason, indeed, he does not receive forgiveness, although he may shed fountains of involuntary tears and depart from merciful God with a sorrowful, constrained heart—he is worthy of that: “Believe that you will receive”, says the Lord, “and it will be done for you” (Mk 11:24). Uncertainty in receiving what we ask of God is blasphemy against God.

192. In unbelief in something true and holy, the mind is usually darkened, the unbelieving heart is stricken with fear and tightness, but in sincere faith it feels joy, peace, breadth or expansion of life in itself, so that even the mind becomes bright and far-seeing. Is not the truth clearly triumphing over the madness of the heart? Is not the deceitful heart clearly shown to be false? Yes, the sufferings of the heart in unbelief in something true and holy is a sure sign of the truth of that in which it does not believe. The heart itself dies, subjecting truth to doubt, assailing the destruction of that which cannot be destroyed, whereas the expansion of the heart in sincere faith is the same sure sign of the truth of that in which you believe, because the object in which we believe communicates life to our heart and renews, strengthens this life. Our heart, infected with sin, is an insignificant storehouse of life, that is why sin is death and not life; the fullness of life is outside us. But as this spiritual life is invisible and communicated to us by our faith in the invisible, personal life—God—the conductor of life into our heart is our living, sincere faith in God. Without faith the heart naturally must feel tightness, sorrow, as a contraction, diminishment of life. But with faith there must also be harmony of our spiritual activity with the object of faith, as this is a moral existence.

193. “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6). What man does not agree with these words of the Apostle? The minding of the flesh is indeed death. Come here, avaricious man, lover of gain, envious, self-loving, proud, ambitious one, and let us look at you, at your deeds, at your life! Open to us, if you will, your heart’s thoughts! We will be convinced by you—a living example—that the minding of the flesh is death: you do not live a true life, you are spiritually dead; at freedom you are internally bound; in reason like a madman, because “the light in you is darkness” (Mt 6:23); you received from God a heart capable of enjoying the feelings of all that is true, holy, good, and beautiful; but by the minding of the flesh you have suppressed in it noble feelings, noble impulses; you are dead, you “have no life in yourself” (Jn 6:53). But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Come any Christian-man, living his life according to faith, destroying passions in himself and thinking “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise” (Phil 4:8)—come to us and tell us what you feel in your soul from setting the mind on the Spirit: “I”, you will say to us, “feel in my heart the everlasting ‘peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom 14:17); I feel expansion of my heart, an overflow of life, I laugh at all that is fleshly, I marvel how it has such great power over the hearts of fleshly men, and I am occupied in continual contemplation of heavenly, spiritual, invisible blessings, prepared for those who love God.”

194. Alas! Many are seduced by the gift of freedom given to man by God, and the possibility of man to be good or evil, and after falling into sin—man’s readiness toward evil rather than good. They blame the Creator and say: why did God create us like this, why did He not create us so that we could not fall and do evil? And some attribute man’s corruption by sin to the imperfection of nature, passing by God in their thoughts and recognizing the whole world, with all its phenomena and objects, as some impersonal, non-autonomous, unfree being, of which they are parts. That is what removal from the Church does! That is what ignorance you fall into, false teachers! Meanwhile our children know clearly, distinctly, firmly that which you do not know. You blame the Creator; but is He to blame that you, through inattention to His voice, through ill-nature and ingratitude, misused the greatest gift of His goodness, wisdom, and almightiness—namely freedom, which is an inalienable trait of God’s image! Is He not all the more to be recognized as good, that He gave this gift, not wavering at the ingratitude of those who received it, so that His goodness might shine more clearly than the sun for all? And did He not prove by very deed His boundless love and infinite wisdom in giving us freedom, when, after our fall into sin and separation from Him and spiritual destruction, He sent into the world His only-begotten Son, “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 1:23), and gave Him to suffering and death for us? Who after this will blame the Creator for having given us freedom! “Let God be true though every one were a liar” (Rom 3:4). Each one, save yourself, struggle, conquer, but do not be wise above what is written and do not blame the Creator for lack of goodness and wisdom; do not blaspheme God the All-good. Rise higher in love; ascend ever higher by the steps of spiritual perfection, which without freedom could not be attained. “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).

195. In our body all life long the principles of life and death struggle with each other, good and sin, sickness and health. The principles of death, long fought by the principles of life (vitality), finally gain victory over the principles of life, because our body, as something material and sinful, does not have within itself the principles of life, borrowing them from the soul, which itself through sin bears many principles of death within it and is too weak to resist the principles of mortality found in the soul itself. Moreover, the inner man is renewed at the cost of the corruption of the outer. The vigorous, constantly active spirit finally by very effort of its activity destroys the weak, mortal body. Moreover, inherited bodily sicknesses with time ever more strengthen and also destroy the bodily organism. Thus man’s life on earth is a gradual, daily dying. And our passions? How they take our health! And intemperance, and disorder in the use of food, drink, sleep, and pleasures? How all this disrupts the body! So if our body is constantly destroyed and visibly nears its end, let us despise it as passing and strive with all our strength for the immortal soul. The body is an unfaithful, passing friend.

196. We have a reliable barometer that shows the elevation or depression of our spiritual life—this is the heart. It can be called also a compass, by which we guide ourselves in sailing the sea of this life. It shows where we are going: toward the spiritual East—Christ, or toward the West—toward the dark power that has dominion over death—the devil. Only watch carefully this compass—it will not deceive and will show the true way. “If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God” (1Jn 3:21), that is, we draw near to the East.

197. What a man will love, in what he will occupy himself, that he will find: he will love the earthly—the earthly he will find, and it will dwell in his heart and communicate to him its earthliness and bind him; he will love the heavenly—the heavenly he will find, and it will dwell in his heart and will move him vivifyingly. One must not apply the heart to anything earthly, for when we use everything earthly immoderately and with attachment, a certain spirit of malice, made earthly by boundless resistance to God, mingles with it.

198. When God is in all thoughts, desires, intentions, words, and deeds of man, then the Kingdom of God comes to him; he sees God in all things then: in the world of thought, in the world of activity, and in the material world; for him the omnipresence of God is opened in the clearest way, and pure fear of God enters the heart: he each minute seeks to please the Lord and each minute fears lest he sin against the Lord present at his right hand. May Your kingdom come!

199. Examine yourself often: where do the eyes of your heart look—toward God and toward life of the future age, toward the blessed, light-bearing heavenly powers and saints dwelling in the heavens, or—toward the world, toward earthly goods: food, drink, clothing, dwelling, toward sinful men and their vain occupations? Oh, if only our eyes were always turned to God! But we only turn our eyes to the Lord in need and misfortune, while in times of prosperity our eyes are turned toward the world and its vain deeds. And what, you ask, will this looking toward the Lord bring me? Deep peace and tranquility to your heart, light to your mind, holy zeal to your will, and deliverance from the snares of the enemy. “My eyes are ever toward the Lord”, says David, and gives the reason: “for He will pluck my feet out of the net” (Ps 24:15). “The Lord… will speak peace… to those whose hearts turn to Him” (Ps 84:9).

200. When you doubt the truth of some person or event described in Holy Scripture, then remember that all Holy “Scripture is God-breathed…” (2Tim 3:16), as the Apostle says, and therefore it is true, and there are no invented persons, fables, and tales in it, although there are parables and not direct narrative, where everyone sees that the speech is parabolic. All the Word of God is one truth, whole, undivided, and if you recognize as false some story, saying, or word, you will sin against the truth of all Holy Scripture, and the original truth of it is God Himself. “I am… the Truth” (Jn 14:6), says the Lord; “Your word is truth” (Jn 17:17), says Jesus Christ to God the Father. So honor all Holy Scripture as truth: what it speaks about, that is how it was or is.

Part One §201-240

201. Do not yield to dark, malevolent dispositions of heart toward others, but master them and root them out by the power of faith, in the light of sound reason—and you will be good-spirited. “I walked in my integrity” (Ps 25:1). Such dispositions often appear in the depths of the heart. Whoever has not learned to master them will often be gloomy, thoughtful, burdensome to himself and others. When they come, force yourself to a joyful disposition, cheerfulness, innocent jokes: and like smoke they will scatter. Experience.

202. A strange and wild phenomenon in nature corrupted by sin—sometimes to hate those who benefit you and to repay them with their kindness with indisposition! Oh, how narrow, how scarce in love and mercy is our heart! How self-loving it is! The enemy greatly mocks us over this; he wants to destroy the fruits of our good deeds. But love all the more the more you benefit someone, knowing that the receiver of mercy from you is also a pledge for you of mercy from God.

203. When asking the Lord, or the Most Pure Mother of God, or the Angels, or the saints, one must have such faith as the centurion of Capernaum had (Lk 7 and following). He believed that, as his soldiers listened to him and fulfilled his words, so much more, by the almighty word of the All-good Lord, his request would be fulfilled. If creatures by their limited strength fulfilled what he asked of them, will not the Master Himself by His almighty power fulfill the requests of His servants, turning to Him with faith and hope! Will not the most pure Mother of God, the Angels, and holy men, faithful and strong in grace and intercession with God, fulfill our requests brought with faith, hope, and love! Truly, I also believe with the centurion that if I ask rightly and of whom I should ask of any saint: “Give me this”—and he will give it; “Come to my aid”—and he will come; “Do this”—and he will do it. That is what simple and strong faith one must have!

204. Every false thought bears within itself proof of its falseness. This proof is its deadliness for the heart; “to set the mind on the flesh is death” (Rom 8:6). Equally every true thought contains within itself the proof of its truth. This proof is its life-giving quality for the heart; to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace, says the Apostle.

205. And a sword will pierce Your own soul too: “so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:35). This happened to the Mother of God in all the fullness of the spoken words; it happens also to other good and God-fearing people, and through them a sword passes their heart so that the thoughts of people touched by them may be revealed, that is, the Lord sometimes places them in such relation to people who conceal in their souls much evil but do not reveal it, so that they involuntarily speak from the abundance of inner evil; their mouths begin to speak, and this evil, like an unclean stream or like a whole river, flows from their mouths. Then they begin to do deeds unworthy of the human name, and only then do people learn what these people were within themselves, previously considered wise, educated, and respectable.

206. May Your kingdom come, that is, the kingdom of life; for now the kingdom of death continues under the dominion, for the most part, of him who has dominion over death—the devil. How does the Kingdom of God come to man in this life? Through heartfelt repentance. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:2). Let the impious abandon his councils, the lover of money his avarice, the deceiver his deceits, the drunkard his drunkenness, the glutton his gluttony, the immoral his immorality, the proud man his pride, the vain-glorious his vanity, the envious and insatiable man his envy and insatiability, the impatient and murmuring man his impatience and murmuring; and let all learn the deeds of Christian love, especially “bear one another’s burdens” (Rom 15:1)!

207. External prayer is often fulfilled at the expense of internal, and internal at the expense of external, that is, if I pray with my lips or read, then many words do not reach my heart; I am divided, I play the hypocrite; my lips express one thing, but my heart another; my lips speak truth, but my heart’s disposition does not accord with the words of prayer. But if I pray internally, with my heart, without paying attention to the utterance of words, I concentrate on the content, on their power, gradually training my heart to the truth, and I enter the very disposition of spirit in which the prayer words were written; and thus I gradually accustom myself to pray in spirit and in truth, according to the words of the eternal Truth: “Those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:24). When a man prays aloud externally, then he cannot always follow all the movements of the heart, which are too swift, so that necessarily he must occupy himself with utterance, with the external form of the word. Thus in many chanters who read hurriedly, completely false prayer is formed: with their lips they seem to pray, you would take them for devout, but their heart sleeps and does not know what their lips are saying. This happens because they hurry and do not think in their hearts about what they are saying. One must pray for them, as they pray for us; one must pray that their words reach their heart and breathe its warmth. They pray for us with the words of the saints, and we for them.

208. We sin in thought, word, and deed. To become pure images of the Holy Trinity, we must strive for holiness of our thoughts, words, and deeds. Thought corresponds in God to the Father, words to the Son, deeds to the Holy Spirit who accomplishes all. Sins of thought in a Christian are no small matter, because all our pleasing God consists, according to the testimony of St. Macarius of Egypt, in thoughts: for thoughts are the beginning, from them come words and activity—words, because they either give grace to those who hear or are rotten words and serve as a stumbling-block to others, corrupt the minds and hearts of others; deeds all the more, because examples act more powerfully on people than anything, drawing them to imitate them.

209. Your Lord is Love; love Him and in Him love all men as His children in Christ. Your Lord is Fire; be not cold-hearted, but burn with faith and love. Your Lord is Light; do not walk in darkness and do nothing in the darkness of reason, without discernment and understanding or without faith. Your Lord is God of mercy and compassion; be and you for your neighbors a source of mercy and compassion. If you will be such, you will gain salvation with eternal glory.

210. Whoever hastily, without heartfelt understanding and sympathy, reads prayers, overcome by lazy and sleepy flesh, serves not God but his own flesh, his own self-love, and mocks the Lord by his inattention, the indifference of his heart in prayer: for God is Spirit: “those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:24)—genuinely. However lazy and weakened your flesh is, however it inclines you to sleep, overcome yourself, do not spare yourself for God, deny yourself, let your gift to the Lord be perfect; give God your heart.

211. “The heavens declare the glory of God… and the sky proclaims…” that it is the work of His hands, “day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge”, so that all understand this (Ps 18:2-3). This silent, but evident proclamation of the heavens about their creation by the Almighty has reached us also, and there is no language or dialect that would not understand this proclamation. Now, since the time of the incarnation of the Son of God, all the glory of God, the glory of His love for the human race, as well as the glory of creation, is proclaimed by the Gospel and the Holy Church; the voices of the preachers of the Gospel, the celebrants of the Mysteries and prayers—of the shepherds, readers, and singers; the voices of the bells; nor is excluded the proclamation of the sky with its luminaries. But proclamation by a living voice is more lively, clearer, striking. The whole earth also speaks of the glory of the Lord, all earthly existence.

212. In no work, domestic or official, forget that your strength, your light, your success is Christ and His Cross; therefore do not fail to cry out to the Lord before beginning the work: “Jesus, help me! Jesus, enlighten me!” Thus living faith and your hope in Christ will be maintained and kept warm in your heart; for His is the strength and the glory forever.

213. See that you do not forget, Christian, and do not lose at any time the heartfelt faith in Him who is your invisible Life, your peace, your light, your strength, your breath—that is, in Christ Jesus. Do not believe your heart when it grows stony, becomes darkened, disbelieves, and grows cold from food and drink, from worldly distraction, or finally because you will live by reason and not by heart—when you will exercise your mind but leave your heart in neglect—when you will increase and adorn the net but leave the fisherman himself in poverty and destitution: for the heart is, comparatively, the fisherman or fisher, and reason is the fisherman’s net.

214. At rest, spaciousness, and pleasure of the flesh, it comes alive with all its passions and inclinations, but at narrowness, affliction, and torment it dies with all its passions; that is why the wisdom and goodness of the Heavenly Father subjects both our soul and body to grievous sorrows and sicknesses; and that is why we should not only endure sorrows and sicknesses with good spirit, but rejoice in them even more than in a state of peace of soul, spaciousness, and bodily health, for it is certainly bad spiritual state of the man who is not subjected to spiritual sorrows or bodily sicknesses, especially in the abundance of earthly goods; his heart invisibly produces all kinds of sins and passions from itself and subjects him to spiritual death.

215. Remember that the Lord is in every Christian. When your neighbor comes to you, have always great respect for him, for the Lord is in him, who often through him expresses His will. “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Do not spare anything for your brother, as for the Lord, especially since you do not know in whom the Lord comes to visit you; to all be impartial, to all be good, sincere, cordial. Remember that even through unbelievers the Lord sometimes speaks, or disposes their hearts toward us, as happened in Egypt with the prison keeper, whose heart the Lord disposed toward Joseph (Gen 39:21).

216. The peace of my heart is in the high and spiritual, not in the low and material. Grant me, O Lord, to always think of the high and completely renounce the low. I trust in Your goodness! “I lift my eyes to the mountains; from where will my help come” (Ps 120:1).

217. As human speech reveals what is in the mind and heart of man (reveals the mind—invisible, sovereign, creative), and through speech, revealing the mind or thought, breath goes forth from man, so somewhat similarly God’s Word shows us the Father—this great, all-creating Mind, and through the Word the Holy Spirit, Life-giving, eternally goes forth and is revealed to men from the Father, who is the power of the Most High (“the power of the Most High will overshadow you”) (Lk 1:35). Now the words of the Savior are clear: “no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27). You see? Only the Son reveals the Father to men, as our word reveals the hidden thought of our soul. What intimate unity between Father and Son! And to each Person is proper sovereignty and its own, so to speak, work. Therefore the Savior says to His disciples: “if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (Jn 16:7). Glory to You, Son of God, reveal to us the mystery of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Your Word is truth; by all and each of Your words we live. They are sweetness to us, rest, life; especially the word about the Comforter.

218. Strengthen yourself in the undoubted calling upon the Comforter Spirit—He is very known to you. You call upon Him so often on the Holy Gifts, He, by your prayer, certainly and continually transforms them always, and you yourself taste many times the fruits of His divine actions.

219. With the greatest care one must hold in one’s earthen vessel, in the heart, the treasure of the Spirit, “rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38); one must watch over one’s heart, be meek, refrain from irritability and movements of self-love, attachment to the earthly, from unclean uprisings of the flesh; otherwise this priceless treasure of the Spirit will instantly leave us: suddenly peace and joy will disappear from the heart—this feeling of extraordinary, angelically-spiritual lightness of the soul, soaring in freedom of heart and thought; and these rivers of living water, which just before flowed and abundantly watered the furrows of the soul, will disappear; the soul will be filled with an alien fire, painfully scorching the innermost parts, depriving it of peace and joy, filling it with the feeling of sorrow and tightness, and inciting to irritability and blasphemy. So clearly, so sharply are the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the enemy, the kingdom of life and the kingdom of death, distinguished and replaced in us! The Christian sees this with inner eyes and marvels at God’s justice and holiness, and marvels also at the sleeplessness of the enemy, always “like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1Pet 5:8).

220. God the Father is life, God the Son is life, God the Holy Spirit is life: the Holy Trinity is life. Life is in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: renounce in your heart the Father—you will renounce the life of your heart; renounce the Son—you will renounce your life; renounce the Holy Spirit—you will renounce your life—so certainly will your doubt echo with death in your heart, with sorrow, with painful tightness, and God will remain God of life in Three Persons; but renounce doubt of the heart, recognize with all your heart all Three Persons as God, as your life, and life will enter your heart again. God worshipped in Trinity in Himself is “yea and amen” (2Cor 1:20).

221. When reading or listening to sacred compositions, always behold in them the image of God the Word, or God the Word Himself speaking through them. Always remember when reading a book of spiritual or worldly content, that man is the image of God, and this image of God is in his thought, word, and spirit by which he speaks. Accustom yourself always to look at every man with high respect as the image of God, but especially when he speaks, and especially when he speaks of God. Oh, then he is divine. From familiarity with people, from acquaintance with them, with their ordinary life, from habit of the gift of speech in oneself and in others, we undervalue the gift of speech, even sometimes despise it in others—and thus the devil through our self-love and inattention blasphemes in people the image of God; one must humble oneself in heart in all ways and trample down one’s proud mind, lest we be like the contemporaries of the prophets, who looked upon them as singers of sweet song—nothing more; they did not wish to fulfill their commands, even despised, persecuted, beat, and killed them; lest we become like those people for whom “a prophet is not accepted in his native country” (Lk 4:24). However small and insignificant a man may appear, respect in him the image of God, especially when he speaks with love, especially when he speaks and does the deeds of love.

222. Suppose you wrote a book on the Holy Trinity and printed it in a thousand copies, or as many as you wish. And in all these books you have not only one spirit, but the very same words, the same form. So it is with the offering of the Body of Christ. Throughout the universe, in countless churches it is offered; on all altars of Christian churches the same Trinity acts, in all lambkins the same Christ and His Spirit (as the content in a book), everywhere one and the same form of offering—and so it is that this Most Holy Mystery is, as it were, one great sacred book of the Lord’s love for the human race, which in countless copies is prepared throughout the universe in one and the same form with one and the same life-giving Spirit dwelling in it, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, the Spirit of Christ. Another likeness: what multitude of individual human persons on earth: they all have one form of body, they all have one soul, with the same, though not identical, powers, and all these persons have one name—man. All men are as one man, and from one beginning all have come forth: originally from God the Father and the Son and His Spirit, and afterward from one pair. Therefore, the commandment of God commands to love each as oneself, by the identity of our nature. So you see many persons, and they are one by the identity of nature of soul and body. So also the Lord in His life-giving Mysteries, wherever they may be offered, is eternally one and indivisible Creator “from one blood” of all “mankind” (Act 17:26). Through His one Spirit, dwelling in the Mysteries of Body and Blood accomplished in all churches of the world, He wishes to unite us with Himself, we who have fallen away through sin and obedience to the devil from union with Him, and to cut off and cleanse all that in us is separating from Him and from one another: that all may be one: “as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You, so they also may be in Us, one” (Jn 17:21). That is the purpose of Communion!

223. What is marvelous about bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ and Christ resting in them as the soul in the body? What is marvelous when even the devil nests in a tiny germ (in the heart) of a child, strengthens as the body grows, so that then the child comes into the world with the devil hidden and nesting in his heart? Oh, what infinite goodness and wisdom of the Lord is revealed in the giving to us of the most pure Mysteries of His Body and Blood, in that they are received by the Christian into the very heart! Note, into the heart—there where the devil nests, “he who has dominion over death” (Hebr 2:14)—as a complete antidote to him, as a gift to us of holiness and life and in the driving away of sin and death! As it is certain that in our heart the devil and every sin often nest, so it is certain that Christ the Life-giver, our holiness, enters into our hearts. Greater is our Lord than the devil; if the devil lives and acts in our hearts through various attachments of ours to earthly objects, then how should Christ not enter into our hearts through faith and repentance, when it was created by Him to be the temple of God—how should Christ not enter into our hearts, precisely in His flesh and blood, in correspondence with our spirituality and at the same time fleshiness? Further: if the devil can “give spirit and voice to the image of the beast” (Apok 13:15), then how can Christ not enter into bread and wine and not transform them, not completely assimilate them to Himself as flesh and blood?

224. A burning-glass then ignites wood or paper or something else inflammable when we direct it at the object so that the rays of the sun, concentrated in the focus of the glass, all concentrate at one point of the ignited object, act upon it with their whole force, and thus, as it were, the whole sun in a diminished form is placed upon the object. So it is in prayer, then our soul is warmed, vivified, and inflamed by the intellectual Sun—God, when with our mind, as with a burning-glass, we direct upon the heart, as upon a spiritual point in our existence, this intellectual Sun, and when It acts upon the heart with Its whole simplicity and Its whole power. The same with the Mother of God and the Angels and saints. Direct upon your heart their images as they are, with all their power and holiness; let the heart receive their illumination upon itself with possible fullness and power, and it will be inflamed by their love-giving, as it were, fiery action: their purity, holiness, goodness, strength will communicate themselves to your heart, and it will be purified of itself, will be strengthened of itself in faith and love, and the more, the more decisively and constantly you will hold your heart turned to God and to His saints, the more will your heart be enlightened, purified, and vivified.

225. If you call upon any saint with doubt in his nearness to you and in his hearing you, and your heart is struck with tightness—overcome yourself, or better said, immediately overcome with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ the slanderer nesting in your heart (the devil), call upon the saint with heartfelt assurance that he is near you in the Holy Spirit and hears your prayer: and it will immediately become easy for you. Heaviness and torment of heart in prayer come from insincerity, from falseness and craftiness of our heart, just as in ordinary speech with people we feel inwardly awkward when we speak to them not from the heart, not truly, not sincerely. “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Act 26:14). Be always and everywhere true in heart, and always and everywhere you will have peace in your heart, but especially be true in converse with God and with the saints: for “God is Spirit” (1Jn 5:6).

226. During prayer each word must be pronounced with the heart with that power which is contained in each of them, as and medicines are taken, usually, with the corresponding medicinal strength given to each of them by the Creator. If we eliminate the power or essence of the medicine, then it will not be effective and will only set the teeth on edge; exactly so, if in prayer we pronounce words without their power, not feeling their truth in our heart, we will receive no benefit from prayer, because true, fruitful prayer must be in spirit and in truth. The words of prayer correspond to medicinal compounds or spices, each having its own power and together constituting a healing remedy for the body. As apothecaries preserve the power of aromatic medicinal compounds, keeping them tightly corked in glass bottles or in some other vessel, so must we preserve tightly the power of each word in our heart as in a vessel, and in no way pronounce it except with the power corresponding to it.

227. When praying, one must present all creation as nothing before God, and God alone as all, containing all as a drop of water, existing in all, acting in all, and vivifying all.

228. Prayer is the golden bond of man the Christian, a sojourner and stranger on earth, with the spiritual world, of which he is a member, and above all with God—the Source of life; from God the soul came forth, to God let it always go through prayer. From prayer comes great benefit for the one praying: it calms the soul and body; it calms not only the soul of the one praying (“I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28)), but often also the souls of the departed fathers and brethren of our fathers and brothers. You see how important prayer is!

229. As smoke from burning wood rises into the air, so the soul departs from the body delivered over to the burning of corruption.

230. Conscience in people is nothing other than the voice of the omnipresent God walking in human hearts. As the Lord who created all and is One knows all as Himself – all thoughts, desires, intentions, words, and deeds of people past, present, and future. No matter how far ahead I race with my thoughts, my imagination, He is there before me, and I always, inevitably accomplish my course in Him; I always have Him as witness to my paths. “His eyes” are “open to all the ways of human beings” (Jer 32:19). “Where can I go from Your Spirit, and where can I flee from Your presence?” (Ps 138:7).

231. Here before us stands a living human: his eyes are turned toward us, his ears are open to listening; before us are his body and soul, yet we see the body while we do not see the soul – we cannot see his thoughts, his desires, his intentions, even though there is not a moment when his soul is not thinking and living in the manner corresponding to its nature. Likewise, before us, around us, and in us is visible nature, the entire beautiful World of God; we see life everywhere in it, orderly arrangement, activity; but we do not see the Author of life and order, we do not see the Creator, yet He is at every moment in every place, like a soul in a body, though He is not limited by it; there is not a single moment when He, as the Most Perfect Spirit, All-Wise, All-Good, All-Knowing, Almighty, Omnipresent, does not think and pour forth goodness and wisdom upon His creatures; there is not a moment when He does not apply His wisdom and almightiness to His work, for God is the most self-active Being, producing infinitely. So you see the world: but see, observe in it everywhere its Author – God, existing everywhere in it, filling all things and operating in all and ordering all.

232. Every person’s conscience is a ray of light from the one spiritual Sun that illuminates all – God. Through conscience the Lord God reigns over all as the Righteous King and Almighty. And how mighty is His dominion through conscience! No one has power to silence its voice completely! It speaks without partiality to all and each, like the voice of God Himself! Through conscience we all stand before God as one person; therefore the Ten Commandments are addressed as though to a single person: “I am the Lord your God…; you shall have no other gods…; do not make an idol…; do not take…; remember the Sabbath day…; honor your father and mother;… do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not covet…” (Ex 20:1-17). Or: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and… your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:30-31), because he is completely the same as I.

233. “Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3). What a great commandment! It is necessary to fulfill it. To maintain the unity of the Spirit. This is what the Son of God has always desired and desires, what He prayed for and prays for to the Father. “Holy Father, protect them in Your name – He prayed about His disciples, whom You have given Me – so that they may be one, as We are… And not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their word: that they all may be one;… so the world may believe that You sent Me” (Jn 17:11,20-21). Do you see how our unity in spirit and in life loudly demonstrates the Divinity of our faith’s Founder – the Lord Jesus Christ? Whoever desires to unite all, to make them as one soul, and accomplishes this, clearly proceeds from the one God who created all, united all under Himself, and wishes to bring back to unity those separated through disobedience, through faith and obedience. Teachers who do not come from God, who are not called by Him, not sent by Him (“I did not send” them, “yet they ran” (Jer 23:21); “no one takes this honor upon himself unless called by God, just as Aaron was” (Hebr 5:4)), ordinarily introduce division and discord into human society, thereby clearly exposing themselves as not from God. Such was Luther, such are the schism-teachers, such are all heretics. They divided the one Church of God, severed what cannot be severed, the many-in-one unity joined under the one Head of the Church – Christ, animated by one Spirit of God, and by this proved they were instruments of the devil, who cares only to divide, scatter, and disperse the Lord’s sheep. “A wolf will snatch them and scatter the sheep” (Jn 10:12). Glory to Christian faith – Orthodox faith! The true fruit of it has always been and is the unity of believers with one another through love and communion of spiritual and material goods. The more Christians depart from the spirit of their faith, the more they divide themselves through self-love, the more they close themselves off, the less they have communion in spiritual and material goods – especially material – with the needy, the more love drains from them, and the more humanity suffers. True Christianity establishes well-being on earth as well, because it regards Christians as one great body in which there are members noble and ignoble not by nature but by place and function, strong and weak, rich and poor, and the Spirit of God advocates in the souls of the strong or rich for help to the weak or needy – through communion of spiritual and material goods: “All the believers had one heart and soul” (Act 4:32).

234. Lack of love, enmity, or hatred ought not to be even named among Christians. Can there be lack of love among Christians? Everywhere you see love, everywhere you smell its fragrance. Our God is a God of love; His kingdom is a kingdom of love; from love for us He did not spare for us His “only Son” and gave Him up to death for us (1Jn 4:9): at home you see love among your household (for they are sealed in baptism and chrismation with the cross of love and bear the cross, partake with you in church of the supper of love). In the church everywhere are symbols of love: crosses, cross-signs, saints who pleased God through love for Him and neighbor, and Love Itself incarnate. In heaven and on earth everywhere is love. It gives rest and sweetens the heart like God, whereas enmity kills soul and body. And you always and everywhere show love! Will you still not love, when everywhere you hear the proclamation of love, when only the murderer devil is eternal enmity!

235. “He did not spare His own Son…; how then will He not also give us all things with Him?” (Rom 8:32). The greatest gift has been given; everything else we ask for is infinitely less than the Son of God. Therefore we can confidently ask God for all things in the name of Jesus Christ – every good thing we can conceive. “Whatever you ask the Father in My name, I will do it: so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn 14:13). Do you ask forgiveness of sins and rest for the departed? “He is” the “propitiation for our sins… and for those of the whole world” (1Jn 2:2). “His blood” “cleanses us from every sin” (1Jn 1:7). He can forgive the departed every transgression committed by them in word, deed, or thought. He is the resurrection and the life and the rest of His departed servants. Do you ask blessings for the living and for yourself? “Whatever you ask for,” He says, “you will receive” (Jn 15:7).

236. As the Lord knows the number of the stars of heaven, so He knows the number of the heavenly Angels and the number of their thoughts; as He knows the number of the sands of the sea and the number of all creatures of the earth with their organs and constituent parts, great and infinitely small; as He knows the number of atoms of all elements to infinite smallness, so He knows the number of all humankind, all that was, is, and will be, the number of thoughts of all people that have been, are, and will be, the number of all their heart-movements, words, and deeds. As nothing is hidden from Him in sensible nature, not even the smallest atom perishes, for how can what He brought into being perish without God, without His will – so in spiritual nature not a single thought, not a single notion, not a single heart-movement, desire, and deed is lost to Him: all are preserved in His treasuries by number and measure, that is, in the quantity and degree and strength as it was, except evil thoughts, desires, words, and deeds that are confessed or erased by corrected living. The number of all earthly atoms and atoms of all earthly creatures, like the number of human spirit’s thoughts and movements, in this regard stands in perfect parallel. Indeed, if what is created, instrumental, lifeless in itself does not perish, how then will perish that which has received from the Lord the capacity for creation, the sovereign, the living – thought clothed in word, and the very originator of thought – the soul? Therefore it is impossible; prepare for judgment, mortals! All your thoughts, desires, words, and deeds – good and evil – await you at judgment, sent forward by you from earth – good ones all, evil ones those not confessed or not erased by opposite thoughts, desires, and deeds. All of them will God bring you to judgment for. Merciful Lord! “Do not enter into judgment with Your servants” (Ps 142:2). “If You mark iniquities, O Lord, O Lord, who can stand?” (Ps 129:3).

237. The greatest luminary is reflected in infinitely small earthly bodies, in their countless multitude, and the image of a human is reflected in the small pupils of the eyes: so the mental Sun – Christ – is portrayed in small beings – humans, in infinite multitude of them, also in the smallest particles of His Body and Blood, for the first – eternal Life – is supremely simple and unique. The sun, reflected in a multitude of small and great bodies, illuminates the whole world, covering all of it with itself: so also the Lord.

238. Wind is one and the same, yet in countless places produces forces: so also the Spirit of God is one and the same, yet in countless angelic assemblies manifests His strength and might, in all holy humans, “breathing where He wills, and you hear His voice” (Jn 3:8).

239. “The Lord guards” not only “all his bones” (Ps 33:21), but also the likenesses of holy saints, not allowing them to perish in decay, neglect, and oblivion, seeking them out miraculously, as we know from accounts of miraculous icon appearances, especially of icons of the Most Pure Mother of God – our Lady. Thus the image of a person is precious to the Lord, especially the image of a holy person, a vessel of grace. Through the image He works miracles, or grants invisible healing and consoling powers.

240. “God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things” (1Jn 3:20). With the eye of our heart we see and know the smallest heart-movements, all our thoughts, desires, and intentions, generally almost everything in our soul. But God is greater than our heart. He is in us and around us and everywhere, in every place, like one all-seeing spiritual Eye, of which our heart-eye is only a small image; therefore He knows all that is in us – better, a thousand times more clearly than we ourselves, knows at one and the same time all that is in each person, in each Angel and in all the powers of heaven, in each creature animate and inanimate, sees as on the palm of His hand all our inner nature and the inner nature of all creation, being present in each of them and holding each of them, as Creator and Sustainer, in being and powers.

Part One §241-280

241. Just as in Jesus Christ “the fullness of Deity dwells bodily” (Col 2:9), so also in the life-giving Mysteries of His Body and Blood. In the small human body – the whole fullness of infinite, boundless Deity, and in the small Lamb or bread, in each smallest particle of it – all divine fullness. Glory to Your almightiness and goodness, O Lord!

242. As the sun, though always in heaven itself, yet with its rays, as if with countless hands, reaches the earth, all its surface, and communicates itself to all organic bodies, entering into them (the sun enters bodies by its rays), warming, giving life, and nourishing them with its warmth, transparent ones passing through or reflecting themselves as a whole circle (as many transparent bodies, so many images of the sun), opaque, hard, and inorganic ones warming – so the mental Sun – God – though chiefly in the heavens, yet with His life-giving Spirit, as if with His rays, communicates with all rational creation – Angels and humans, penetrating their spiritual existence, sanctifying, enlivening, strengthening, and nourishing, like the sun’s rays penetrating organic and plant bodies, enlivening and nourishing them. As the sun, being in heaven, illuminates the whole earth, communicating light to every, even the most insignificant creature and thing, so the Lord with His hypostatic light illuminates all humans, for He is the “true Light that illuminates every person coming into the world” (Jn 1:9).

243. All who draw near to serve the Lord in prayer, learn to be like Him – meek, humble, and truthful of heart; have no deceit in your soul, no double-mindedness; do not be cold, strive to have His Spirit, for “whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him” (Rom 8:9); and the Lord seeks in us what is like Him and kin to Him, something to which His grace could attach. Remember that not a single word is lost in prayer if it is spoken from the heart: the Lord hears each word and each word is weighed on His scales. Sometimes it seems to us that our words merely strike the air uselessly, echo like a voice crying in the wilderness; no, no! You must remember that the Lord understands us in prayer – our words – exactly as perfected people of prayer understand themselves, for man is the image of God. The Lord responds to each desire of the heart, whether expressed in words or not expressed.

244. Partaking of the life-giving Mysteries with unwavering faith, I learn tangibly of Christ’s omnipresence. How? In this way: in each particle of His body and in each drop of blood I receive the whole Christ and thereby see with the eyes of my heart that He is at one and the same time wholly in all particles and drops, no matter how many there are, to infinity. Likewise the Lord is wholly in each church, in the Holy Mysteries and in each smallest particle, and since Orthodox churches are found throughout all the earth, the Lord is present not only by His Divinity, but also by His soul and body throughout all the earth, everywhere communicating Himself to believers wholly indivisibly and producing in them sweet fruits: cleansing of sins, sanctification of Christian souls and bodies, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, uniting all with Himself, with the Father and His Holy Spirit. We know, moreover, that He dwells in the souls of believers with the Father and the Holy Spirit through earnest prayer. Being present to all the material world and at once enlivening the whole of it and each part of it separately, the Lord is all the more present to people and especially Christians, lives in them: “Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are reprobate?” (2Cor 13:5). “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit living in you” (1Cor 6:19)?

245. Humankind is one great tree of God, grown over all the earth and covering the whole earth with its branches. To the previous rotting root – fallen Adam – by God’s wisdom and goodness has been grafted a new, living root – the Lord Jesus Christ, from whom Christians derive their beginning, as a branch from a whole tree. In trees – life is earthly, organic; in Christian humanity – life is Christ’s, heavenly, spiritual, and to the soul-powers and forces of true Christians one must look as to the powers of Christ Jesus Himself. “We have the mind of Christ” (1Cor 2:16), the Apostle says of true Christians; likewise one must look to good deeds as to the fruit of Christ’s grace. Christians not living as Christians form dry branches on the shoot going from the root – Christ, and “every branch that does not bear fruit, the Father cuts off and throws into the fire” (Jn 15:2,6). Pagans are an unbegotten shoot, not enlivened, going from a rotten root – Adam. Through faith they too are grafted to the living, healthy shoot – to the “body of the Church”, this Body of Christ (Col 1:18).

246. Whose are these little leaves on the tree? God’s. Whose are these good thoughts in you? God’s. Whose is the ability of trees to grow and weave woody tissue and produce and develop leaves and fruits? God’s, that is, given by God. Whose are your ability of thought and speech? God’s. Do trees misuse the powers given them by God? No. Does man misuse the powers given him by God? He does: he misuses the mind received from God for knowing God and His truth; he misuses his heart, created for love of God and neighbor, for feeling the blessedness of communion with God, and – his free will, given for infinite advancement in virtue.

247. In our body, in its natural functions, God acts, supporting, nourishing, and growing it. In the grass or in the tree or in the animal, He acts the same: “clothing the grass” (Lk 12:28), growing and adorning trees with leaves and fruits, nourishing and growing animals’ bodies. We ourselves in our body can do nothing, not even a jot, as they say; “we cannot make even one hair white or black” (Mt 5:36). In the infinitely great and infinitely small equally is the Lord, not limited by either one or the other, but being wholly in all things, being indivisible and above all.

248. Can tree leaves exist without a tree, and can a tree exist without earth, air, water, and warmth? So no soul exists without God, without His Son, without His Spirit. God – my being, my breath, my light, my strength, my water, my nourishment. He carries me, as a mother carries an infant in her arms, and more: carrying me, my soul and body, He dwells in me and fuses, so to speak, with me.

249. In praying to God, remember that God is three Persons, and as He is Person and Persons, He possesses in infinity all those perfections that we can imagine in the most perfect, by the grace of God, person, for example in the Most Holy Virgin Mary, in Nicholas the Wonderworker, in John Chrysostom, in the Apostles, prophets, filled with the Spirit of God. Man is the image and likeness of God; from the perfect image one can somewhat judge the Original, what He is like; all that is best, that attracts our heart’s gaze and heart’s affection in a person – comes from God, from His Son and from His Spirit. For example, St. Nicholas was and is compassionate and merciful to people by the grace of God. Always he and now is responsive to those who sincerely call upon him, by the same gracious heart that he had in life and now has by God’s grace. Now, is the Lord God Himself uncompassionate and unmerciful, and how much more compassionate and merciful? – Infinitely more, as He Himself is infinitely greater than St. Nicholas. Or take the Apostle Paul. What human-loving compassion is in the Apostle! Of the servant Onesimus he says to his master: “receive him, that is, my own heart” (Phlm 1:12). How much love is in these words! And what love breathes in his epistles! “Our heart is enlarged,” he says to the Corinthians, – “you are not restricted by us” (2Cor 6:11-12). In one epistle he described what divine love consists of. Reading this description, you feel that the Apostle in deed fulfilled all that he wrote about love. But where did this love come from in the Apostle, the former persecutor and troubler of Christ, who, entering houses, dragged off men and women, mercilessly delivering them to prisons (Act 9:1-2)? From the Lord, the Source of love. He alone is eternal and boundless Love, embracing all creatures.

250. As the Trinity – our God, one Essence though three Persons – so must we be – one. As our God is simple, so must we be simple, so simple as if we all were one person, one mind, one will, one heart, one goodness without the least admixture of evil – in a word, one pure love, as God is Love. – “May they be one, as We are one” (Jn 17:22).

251. All people, like the Angels of God, are breaths of God, for which reason the Angels are called spirits, or, which is the same – breaths of Divinity, while human spirits are called souls, because they proceeded from divine breath and breathe God. It is said that by the Holy Spirit every soul is given life and raised up in purity. But all other creatures are also called breaths: “every breath,” it is said, – “praises the Lord” (Ps 150:6), for they too are from the Spirit of God, though they lack reason and freedom, therefore every creature must be spared, not struck, not tormented. Blessed is he who has mercy even on animals (1Cor 9:9).

252. God is Spirit, a simple Being. And how does spirit manifest itself? Through thought, word, and deed. Therefore God, as a simple Being, does not consist of a series or multitude of thoughts, or of many words or creations, but He is wholly in one simple thought – God the Trinity, or in one simple word – the Trinity, or in three Persons joined as one. Yet He is wholly and in all that exists, passes through all, fills all with Himself. For example, you read a prayer, and He is wholly in each word, as holy Fire, penetrates each word: – each can experience this himself if he prays sincerely, eagerly, with faith and love. But especially He is wholly in His own names: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or – Trinity, or Lord, Lord God; Lord of Hosts; Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God; Holy Spirit; Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth… and His other names. Angels and saints are equally close to us in their names, as their names and our faith in them are close to our hearts; for they are nothing other than breaths of God and “one spirit with the Lord” (1Cor 6:17).

253. Do the saints whom we call upon pray for us? They do. If I, a sinful person, a cold person, sometimes an evil and ill-wishing person, pray for others, those who have asked me and those who have not asked me to pray, and do not doubt or weary in patiently going through their names in prayer, though sometimes not heartfelt, would not the holy people of God – these lamps and flames, burning in God and before God, full of love for their earthly brothers – would they not pray for me and for us when we call upon them with what faith, hope, and love we can muster? They pray and are swift helpers and intercessors for our souls, as the Church illumined by God assures us. So pray undoubtingly to the holy people of God, asking their intercession for yourself before God. In the Holy Spirit they hear you, only you pray in the Holy Spirit and from your soul, for when you pray sincerely, then the Holy Spirit breathes in you, who is the Spirit of truth and sincerity, is our Truth and sincerity. The Holy Spirit in us and in holy people is one and the same. Saints are holy from the Holy Spirit, sanctified by Him and in whom He eternally lives.

254. Lord! You whose love for us exceeds infinitely the love of every father, every mother, every most tender wife, have mercy on us!

255. Lady Theotokos! You whose love for Christians exceeds the love of every earthly mother, every woman, hear us in our prayers and save us! May we remember You always! May we ever pray to You earnestly! May we always have recourse to the shelter of Your robe without laziness and without doubt.

256. We pray to the All-Good and All-Immaculate Mother of God – and She prays for us. We glorify Her – Higher than all glory – and She with Her Son and God asks: My beloved Son, grant them eternal glory in return for greeting Me with joy.

257. So believe with certainty that God sees you just as you are sure that your father or someone else standing face to face with you sees you, with this difference: the Heavenly Father sees all that is in you, what you are entirely, all creatures, Angels, saints, us sinners, animals, He sees all at once just as the sun illuminates all at once, though “the eyes of the Lord are thousands of times brighter than the sun” (Sir 23:27). A living sense of God’s presence before one’s face is the source of peace and joy for the soul. Doubt in His presence produces confusion, sorrow, and constriction. Heartfelt prayer is the source of heart’s peace, while heartless, superficial, inattentive prayer produces heart-wounding.

258. Jesus Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit is an unfathomable abyss of love for humanity. In this abyss of mercy there will be abundant mercy for all, only turn to God with faith, hope, and heartfelt sorrow for your transgressions, for the offenses you have caused the Lord, your Master and Benefactor.

259. God is closer to us than any person at any time: closer than my clothing, closer than air, light, closer than my wife, father, mother, daughter, son, friend. I live in Him soul and body. Through Him I breathe, think, feel, reason, intend, speak, undertake, act. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Act 17:28). “God is” the one “working in you both to will and to do what pleases Him” (Phil 2:13). Therefore you must always place the Lord before you on the right, so that you be not moved, so that you not sin; you must position yourself so that nothing drives Him from your thoughts and heart, nothing obstructs Him; no appetite for food, drink, money, clothes, dwelling and its furnishings, for various people, no worldly diversions and games would rob you of our Most Sweet, Most Beloved Lord, but every hour and minute would belong to Him and you would be with Him inseparably, as He is inseparably with us, as He continually cares for us and guards us. But when I sin or am attached to something, then He is far from me, not by distance, for He fills all things at every moment, but by my heart’s separation from Him, by my indisposition toward Him, by His actual abandonment of me from His grace and His presence in my heart, for then the devil, His enemy, dwells in me.

260. As in the sea, a lake, or river each particle of water is in union with other particles and surrounded by them, or as in the air each particle of air is surrounded by others and united with them, so all we earth-born are surrounded by God from all sides, with the pure among us or those purifying themselves united with Him and everywhere found in Him. All we earth-born – exactly like water, exactly like air, exactly like a many-branched tree, form one whole, though often torn apart by the enemy’s envy through self-love, irritability, enmity, discord, pride, heresies and schisms, envy, greed, unsociability, malice, contempt, and other passions. On the other hand, the devil and his angels form one among themselves, like dark, malignant, poisonous water or fire-breathing, suffocating, deadly air. They surround us and strive to break into our soul during its carelessness and various attachments, to darken, disturb, constrict, scorch, and in every way torment us. So, for example, you sometimes walk in clean, fragrant air – and suddenly the stench from a dung heap or from human excretions strikes your sense of smell most unpleasantly, and you wish quickly to pass this place, so as to breathe again clear, well-mixed air – similarly with demonic stench. The Lord Himself compares demonic hordes to air and water when He says: “the rain fell, and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house” (that is, against a person, pressed down on the human soul), “but it did not fall, for it had its foundation on rock” (Mt 7:25).

261. They say: if you did not look, you would not be seduced; if you did not hear, your heart would not ache; if you did not taste, you would not want… See how much temptation comes from our eyes, hearing, and taste. How many people have suffered and do suffer from this: not being steadfast of heart in good dispositions, they looked carelessly with impure eyes, listened with ears unaccustomed to distinguishing good and evil, tasted greedily. The senses of pleasure-loving, greedy flesh, unbridled by reason and God’s commandments, drew them into various worldly passions, darkened their mind and heart, robbed them of heart’s peace, and enslaved their will, making them its slaves. How carefully then must we look, listen, taste, smell, and touch, or better, how must we guard our heart so that through the outer senses, as through a window, sin does not creep in and the originator of sin himself – the devil – does not darken and wound our soul – that heavenly bird – with his poisoned and deadly arrows.

262. The soul receives the Lord in the life-giving Mysteries through the thought of faith and heart’s awareness that in the Mysteries the Lord Himself is truly present, and our body receives the Lord through the mouth and belly. When the soul receives the Lord with firm faith, then the Lord in one instant passes through the soul, as a simple being, and through the entire body, all its joints, because of the soul’s filling the whole body and because of God’s omnipresence.

263. In Christian life there are necessary temptations, trials, or testings of our soul’s state, and as our life, by analogy with things in a house, is covered by a sort of uncleanness, so it is necessary to cleanse it. Just as instruments are needed to test things, for example silver, so to test or examine the soul, people are needed – like to like – who, willingly or unwillingly, intentionally or quite unintentionally, through their actions toward us would make manifest both to us and to others whether we obey God’s commandments proclaimed to us in the Gospel or not – whether we live by the spirit, mortifying the deeds of the flesh, or by the flesh, obeying like slaves the will of the flesh and fleshly thoughts and passions, and we, learning that we live not by God’s will, not by the commandments of our Sweet Savior, but by our sinful and blind will, would quickly correct ourselves, hastily and earnestly follow the commandments of the divine Gospel.

264. Our body lives from those elements of which it is composed, continually absorbs air, water, organic bodies; our soul lives from the Divine Spirit, from whom it has its origin, and continually absorbs for the sustenance of its life the life of the Three-Hypostatic God, through the light of mind, gracious disposition and desire of heart and will, and strength in good. As the body, not nourished by kindred principles, cannot live and dies, so our soul, not nourished by prayer or good thoughts, feelings, and deeds, also dies. As in our bodily nature nourishment and growth proceed well for a time, but if poison or infection enters through food, drink, or breath, it suddenly causes the body pain and even death if help is not given; so in our spiritual nature all proceeds well for a time, but when the devil comes upon it, it suffers greatly, becomes, as it were, benumbed, and needs swift help from the heavenly Physician, the God of spirits, which will be obtained only through prayer of faith. (The devil’s suggestions in the human soul correspond to poisons in bodily nature, only physical poison rarely enters our body, while these are always with us or around us). As for the nourishment and sustenance of our body’s life there is always ready the environment (medium) in which it lives, namely: light, air, water, food; and by the air, as more necessary for its life, it is always surrounded, and water is everywhere, so to speak, at hand, as well as plants and animals; so for our soul there are always ready in abundance forces for sustaining its life, its spiritual food, drink, clothing – in the Triune God. Being wholly in every place, as it were air or as mental light, the Lord each moment of our life is ready, according to our faith and because of our constant prayer-full disposition, to sustain our soul-powers with His all-working grace, to be for us continuously the light of our mind and heart, the air which our soul breathes, the food by which it is nourished and strengthened, and the warmth by which it is warmed, and the clothing by which it not only covers its sinful nakedness but adorns itself with it, like a royal purple – this is the clothing of Christ’s righteousness. Every person at each moment of their being is found in two environments – material and spiritual, from which all receive: one sustains his bodily, the other his spiritual nature; one is visible nature, the other – the infinite Hypostatic Spirit of God, who, being wholly everywhere, is above all and, sustaining all, is Himself limited by nothing. So insignificant and powerless is each person in themselves that they receive everything not from themselves but from without for the sustenance of their being; they are nothing in themselves. And as their body is sustained by air, food, and drink, so the soul – by prayer, reading God’s Word, and Holy Mysteries. On the other hand, since in the kingdom of the All-Good and All-Powerful God there are fallen evil spirits, and their place is in the air and on earth, and since man from the beginning was seduced by them to evil, as they have always been and now are and will be until the end of the age together with humankind, they form, so to speak, the environment in which we are surrounded and in which we live. People, beings who are free and moreover fallen, though restored by the Son of God and standing in His grace freely through faith, good disposition toward God, and good deeds, must be constantly guarded by prayer to God against hostile powers warring against our soul, wishing to capture us in their captivity and make us like themselves in spirit. All must take extreme care not to become accustomed in spirit and in deeds to the spirits of evil under heaven; so that they do not become the breath of our soul instead of God, so that evil, which constitutes their nature, does not become our evil. However, we must always remember that “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world” (1Jn 4:4), that the Lord holds them in complete power and only permits, insofar as His justice, goodness, and wisdom allow, them to act in the world for the correction and amendment of people. But there are people who have the devil as their clothing and food and drink, just as true Christians clothe themselves in Christ and are nourished by His Body and Blood. Everywhere in the world is duality – one against the other: spirit and body, good and evil. Satan has his minions and helpers to spread his dominion among people; God has Angels, whom He gives to each Christian for his protection and guidance to the blessed kingdom of Christ.

265. Whoever does not believe in God’s omnipresence in their thoughts and heart slanders God’s sovereignty, does not attribute to Him even the property that air has, for air too is everywhere. Is not the Creator of air everywhere? What God is everywhere, the very disbelief itself serves as powerful proof. Thus, in disbelief my heart is constricted, suffers a sort of burning, is tormented, my mind is darkened, I am in a hopeless condition. But in living faith that God is everywhere, in every place, and therefore always with me and in me, my heart is wide, free, light, alive, my mind is clear, I am in a comforting condition. Thus what kills me serves as striking proof of that in the being of which I doubt. Disbelief torments me because it is slander against my heart or an evil spirit’s slander against God, who is my life. Mental denial by my free soul of the Very-Living is naturally and righteously death to it. Again: God is a mental Being, and my soul is equally a mental being from the first mental – therefore communion with God happens with me through thought, through faith of the heart, which is nothing other than a living and clear thought that God is in every place; when I lack such thought, then there is the opposite thought, a negative one; when the connecting principle of my soul with God is severed, then there is no true life for me, but only a phantom of external, false, animal life.

266. The degrees of blessedness and torment in the age to come will be different. This is proved by the present state of souls in various people or in one and the same person at various times, in various circumstances. The simpler, kinder, more sociable a person, the more internally blessed they are; the more cunning, more evil, more self-loving, the more miserable; the stronger in them faith and love, the more blessed; the weaker, the worse, so that the little-faithful, the faithless, the misanthropists – are the most miserable people. Therefore reason also about future torments.

267. Love every person, despite their sins. Sins are sins, but the foundation in a person is one – the image of God. Others are marked by obvious weaknesses, are evil, proud, envious, miserly, money-loving, greedy, yet you are not without evil, perhaps even more than in others. In any case, regarding sins people are equal: “all”, it is said, “have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Rom 3:23); all are accountable before God and all equally need God’s mercy toward us. Therefore, in loving one another, we must bear with one another and forgive each other our transgressions against us, so that our Heavenly Father forgive us our sins (Mt 6:14). So with all your soul honor and love the image of God in each person, paying no mind to his sins – God alone is holy and sinless. But see how He loves us, what He has done and does for us, punishing mercifully and showing mercy graciously and kindly! Moreover, honor the person, despite his sins, because he can always repent.

268. Some of the progressives consider the Church an enemy to themselves. But if anyone is more loving, more benevolent, and wiser in their love for people (after God) than the Church, then it is the Church: everything that is most in accord with our nature and most beneficial to it – all this is contained in the Church as in a treasury, just as the words of life are contained in the Gospel. The Church is the true mother of all humanity, truly believing in Christ, the most faithful friend of Christians. She sympathizes with and responds to all the essential needs of the Christian’s soul and body with active assistance or the bestowal of help through the might of Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, by whom every soul is given life.

269. On glorification. The soul involuntarily rushes toward glorification when you look at the starry sky; but it rushes even more toward glorification when, looking at the heavens and stars as God established them, you represent to yourself God’s thought about people, how God infinitely loves people, cares for their eternal blessedness, not sparing His own Only-Begotten Son for our salvation and rest in the Kingdom of Heaven. One cannot but glorify God when you remember that you were created from nothing, that from the foundation of the world you were destined for eternal blessedness, entirely freely, not according to merit, when you remember what grace God gives you for salvation throughout your entire life, what countless multitude of sins is forgiven you, and not once or twice, but an countless number of times, what multitude of natural gifts is given to you, from the health of your body to a breath of air, a drop of water. You are involuntarily aroused to glorification when in wonder you see the infinite diversity of what is created on earth, in the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the mineral kingdom. How wise is the order in all – in the great and small! You involuntarily glorify and say: “marvelous are Your works, O Lord; You made all things in wisdom”, glory to You, O Lord, who created all things (Ps 103:24).

270. If the Church has composed and transmitted prayers and hymns to the Triune God and His saints for general use, this means that God hears our prayers and is always near to those who pray. But people for the most part pray as if God is not with them, or as if He does not listen. Let us give the Lord at least the attention that good parents show to their children’s requests, at least the providential and attentive love that good parents have for their children. So the Lord Himself teaches. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Mt 7:11), therefore our petitions are fulfilled if we pray with all our heart. Surely. Daily experience.

271. When malice rises up in your heart against someone, then believe with all your heart that it – is the work of the devil acting in your heart: hate him and his offspring, and it will leave you. (Do not consider it as something of your own, do not sympathize with it). Proven. The trouble is that the devil hides himself in us, conceals his head and tail, lurks hidden, and we blind ones think that we alone are doing all this, stand up for the devil’s work as for something of our own, as for something just, though every thought of the justice of one’s passion is purely false, against God, destructive. Guide yourself the same way regarding others; when you see that someone is malicious toward you, do not consider their malice as their direct action; no, they are only a passive instrument of the most evil enemy, do not yet fully know his deception and are deceived by him. Pray that the enemy leave him and that the Lord illuminate the eyes of his heart, darkened by the poisonous, destructive breath of the spirit of malice. You must pray from the heart to God for all people subject to passions: in them the enemy is acting.

272. Passions by their spiritual disposition are contagious; for example: malice, not yet expressed in words, not expressed in deeds, but hidden only in the heart and slightly reflected in the face and eyes, is already transmitted to the soul of the one toward whom I have malice, and is noticeable to others; I am troubled by passion, my trouble touches the other’s heart, becomes a sort of spiritual overflow of an unclean stream from one spiritual vessel to another. You destroy a passion in yourself toward a brother, it is destroyed in him too; you calm yourself, he too will calm down. What close connection between souls! Truly the Apostle’s word: we are “members of one body” (Eph 4:25) – members, or “one body in Christ, though many” (1Cor 10:17). “From one blood” “He made all the nations” (Act 17:26). That is why the divine commandment requires: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39). On mutual feeling or understanding of our souls for one another is based the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of preaching words: if the preacher speaks not from the heart, hypocritically, the listeners with their inner sense understand the contradiction between the preacher’s words and his heart, his life, and the word does not have that power which it could have if the preacher had pronounced it heartfelt, especially if he himself fulfilled his word in deed. Between human souls there is too close an inner connection and communion. Therefore, good, pious, heartfelt dispositions are contagious to the souls of others, and especially good deeds are.

273. As man is made up of soul and body, correspondingly the means for sustaining his life are twofold: bodily and spiritual; for sustaining bodily life serve: air, food, drink, light, warmth; for sustaining spiritual life – prayer (as air), reading God’s Word, the life-giving Mysteries, pious meditation.

274. You know from experience that walls or the place where you live do not constitute an obstacle to the flight of thought; in an instant it can be carried away from home beyond the clouds or from one part of the world to another, from one state to another, from one city to another. But your soul, this thinking rational beginning, is the image of God, a small image of the infinite Spirit – God. If thought is not held back by four walls, is not constricted by space and time, what can hold back the Lord who created all things? Can walls hold Him, can space and time limit Him, however infinite they may be to us? O, His dominion is in every place! His Eye sees all and all. He sees those hiding in secret places, though in mountains or in impregnable fortresses, He sees as on the palm of His hand. Sometimes the Lord hides His face from you and as it were abandons you in painful spiritual darkness, so that you remember always from whose light your soul lives, that is, from God’s, and that if God turns His face from you, takes His Holy Spirit from your heart, you will remain truly in the darkness of hell, in hellish torments and will thereby somewhat know what the future hell is like.

275. Believe and firmly remember that you are a twofold person: one – fleshly, sick with passions, old, devilish, seeking the flesh and placing life in the flesh; him you must mortify and in nothing yield to his sinful, persistent, painful cries; and another – spiritual, new, sound, Christ’s, seeking Christ in all, living by Christ (instead of worldly desires) and finding rest and life in Christ; desiring to have nothing else in this world except Christ; “counting all things loss… so as to gain Christ” (Phil 3:8). As you must spurn the demands of the former in every way, because their fulfillment is deadly to the soul, so you must fulfill the demands of the latter in every way, because they lead to true and eternal life. Let every Christian know this and take on themselves the labor of fulfilling in deed what they have come to know.

276. Do not despair when upon your soul fall hellish clouds, one darker than the other, when upon your soul there comes hellish malice, envy, doubt, resistance, and the like; know firmly that the appearance of these dark clouds on the mental horizon is inevitable, but it does not happen always and does not last long, as in nature dark clouds appear over the sky: they pass by and move on, and again the mental atmosphere of the soul clears. In nature clouds must appear on the sky and darken daylight, but these clouds are not constant, they quickly pass, and after them the light shines again, sunlight, and moreover with new strength.

277. Wonderful creation, man! See: in what is created from earth is enclosed God’s breath, personal, independent – the image of God Himself. How much wisdom, beauty in the arrangement of man’s bodily tabernacle, how much wisdom, love, in a word – god-likeness shows man himself in life – this lord of earth, as it is said: “Let us make in Our image… and let him have dominion… over all the earth” (Gen 1:26)! But so that man does not become proud, see what happens to you when that which is in you in the image of God leaves the body, as from its temple? You as it were disappear completely for this world; you will cease to be visible to it; the temple of your spirit loses all its goodness and beauty, becomes earth and is cast “into the earth, from which it was taken” (Gen 3:19), mixing completely with it as part of it. Wonderful creation of God is man! Wonderfully has the Lord placed in clay His eternal, immortal Spirit. But marvel, Christian, even more at the wisdom, almightiness, and goodness of the Creator: He transforms bread and wine and converts them into His most pure Body and most pure Blood and dwells in them His own self, His spirit most pure and life-giving, so that His Body and Blood become both Spirit and Life. And for what purpose? So that you sinner may be cleansed from sins and sanctified, and sanctified may be united with Him and being united may be deified, blessed, and made immortal. O, wonders of goodness, wisdom, and almightiness of the Savior!

278. Have you seen how respectfully, humbly, orderly the subordinates behave around their leaders in all estates and ranks, and by this mutual behavior fulfill their duty of subordination? But have you seen with what reverence and strict etiquette those close to the tsar behave? But all this is the pattern of creation’s behavior around the Creator, and in this orderly behavior around the Creator, in obedience to His laws, consists their well-being and the purpose of their life.

279. Sometimes a person prays, apparently earnestly, but his prayer brings him no fruits of peace and joy of heart in the Holy Spirit. Why? Because, while praying by ready prayers, he did not repent sincerely of those sins which he committed that day, with which he defiled his heart, this temple of Christ, and angered the Lord. But if he remember them and repent with all sincerity, judge himself impartially – and immediately peace will dwell in his heart, “which surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7). In church prayers there is a listing of sins, but not all, and often those very ones are not mentioned which we bound ourselves with; one must certainly enumerate them at prayer with clear consciousness of their seriousness, with feeling of humility and heartfelt contrition. That is why in evening prayers during the listing of sins it is said: either this or that sin I did wrong, that is, it is left to our will to mention certain sins.

280. Our faith and Church are like a most venerable, holy, wise, firmest, never-aging elder, in whom always lives a young, living, and life-giving spirit of the faithful children. As we always hold ourselves with great respect before elders, honoring their gray hairs and wisdom – the fruit of many years of experience – and value each word of theirs highly and apply it to life, so especially must we honor the Church, revere her holiness, antiquity, unshakable firmness, her divinely-illuminated wisdom and spiritual experience, her soul-saving commandments and decrees, her worship, Mysteries and rites. How should we not honor her for this alone: that she has saved in her bosom a countless number of people, transplanted them to a place of eternal rest and joy, and, not forgetting them after their repose, continues even now to glorify them with eternal praise and glorification of their deeds as her faithful children! Where will you find a more grateful friend, a more tender mother? So let Christians cleave with their hearts wholly to the Church of Christ, let them establish themselves in her unshakably until the end of their temporal life, let all zealously fulfill all her commandments and statutes, and let them find in her eternal salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Part One §281-300

281. By the wise arrangement of God, in this world one thing precedes another and one thing is replaced by another: dishonor and honor, poverty and wealth, health and illness; before granting riches the Lord often tests with extreme want, and deprives the rich of everything; before honor – with dishonor, and those raised by honor – with humiliation, so that we learn to value God’s gifts and not become proud in fortune, knowing that it – is a gift from the Lord, not earned by us.

282. It is necessary to arouse the heart to prayer: otherwise it will dry up completely. Love for God, sincerity, simplicity – these are the properties of prayer. Pray in spirit, for God is Spirit, not flesh; – in truth, not in flattery, for God is truth. The same must be said of prayer to the saints. Do not call upon them with lips only, for they do not have lips, a voice, nothing material, but with a burning heart or soul, then they will hear, for the like seeks the like. Yes, not flesh and blood will inherit the Kingdom of God, but a pure spirit, burning with love for God.

283. “Do not quench the Spirit” (1Thes 5:19), God’s Word says. Remember this every Christian, especially a priest and teacher of children. We especially need always to be ablaze in spirit in our high service to God and humanity. How much we could do for God, for people, and for ourselves if we undertook our work with faith and love, with zeal, with fervor and energy, and how little, dryly, and unfruitfully will our work be when we undertake it weakly, lazily, with coldness, without any zeal and energy! We will give a great account before God both for ourselves and for those entrusted to our care.

284. Be attentive to yourself when a poor person in need seeks help from you: the enemy will try at that moment to fill your heart with coldness, indifference, and even contempt for the needy; overcome these un-Christian and inhumane dispositions in yourself, arouse in your heart compassionate love for your fellow creature in all things, for this member of Christ and your own – “for we are members of one body” (Eph 4:25), – for this temple of the Holy Spirit, so that Christ God may love you; and as much as the needy one asks of you, according to your ability fulfill his request. “Give to everyone who asks you, and if someone wants to borrow from you, do not turn away” (Mt 5:42).

285. With firmness of heart speak the words of prayer. Praying in the evening, do not forget to express in prayer to the Holy Spirit with all sincerity and contrition of heart those sins into which you fell in the past day – a few moments of warm repentance – and you are cleansed by the Holy Spirit from all uncleanness, whiter than snow, and tears, cleansing the heart, will flow from your eyes, and covered with the clothing of Christ’s righteousness you will be united with Him, as with the Father and the Spirit.

286. Spiritual poverty consists in considering yourself as if non-existent and God alone as existent, esteeming His words above all in the world and sparing nothing, even your own life, for their fulfillment; considering God’s will as everything for yourself and others, renouncing your own entirely: the poor in spirit desires with all their heart and says: hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done; they themselves as if disappear, they want to see God everywhere and in everything – in themselves and in others. All be Yours, not mine; desires to behold His holiness in themselves and in all; His kingdom – likewise; His will – likewise; Himself alone wants to see filling human hearts, as it ought to be, for He is the only existent One, All-Good and All-Perfect, Creator of all, and the enemy – the devil and his minions and people opposing God – are thieves in God’s Kingdom and God’s enemies. For the poor in spirit even the whole world is like nothing; everywhere they see the One God, all-enlivening and all-governing, there is no place without God for them, no moment without God – always and always they are with God and as if with Him alone. The poor in spirit does not dare nor thinks to comprehend the incomprehensible, to reveal God’s mysteries, to think lofty thoughts; they believe God’s word alone, knowing that even each word of His is truth, spirit, and eternal life, and to the words of His Church, always led by the Holy Spirit into all truth; believes as a child believes in father or mother, without demanding proofs, trusting them completely. The poor in spirit considers themselves the last and the most sinful of all, counts themselves as trampled by all.

287. How vividly the holy people of God, who composed their prayers in the Holy Spirit for guidance to themselves and us, imagined God; with what trembling they stood in prayer, yet with what love and hope! Every word of their prayer says: God is with us and God is in us, hears each word of ours, sees each thought of ours, desire of ours, tears of ours, each particle of tears.

288. Sometimes we stand in church or at home in prayer in the relaxation of spirit and body: and impotent, cold, and unfruitful is our soul, like that heathen barren church; but just as soon as we strain our heart to sincere prayer to God, turn our thoughts and heart to Him with living faith, at once our soul awakens, warms up, and becomes fruitful; what sudden peace, what lightness, what compunction, what inner holy fire, what warm tears over sins, what sincere feeling of sorrow that we have angered the All-Good Master, what light in heart and mind, what an abundant stream of living water flows freely from the tongue or from the pen and pencil onto paper; the desert of the soul blooms like a lily with the coming of the Lord to the heart. Ah! why do we not turn our hearts to the Lord more often! How much He always has hidden for us of peace, consolation! “How great is the abundance of Your goodness, O Lord, which You have hidden for those who fear You” (Ps 30:20)!

289. Clever and careful is the little bird, does not let the hunters catch it in the open expanse of God’s world, and when it sees someone approaching, wishing to seize it, quickly takes off upward from the ground and thus escapes from those hunting it. So the Christian must be wise and vigilant, so that the bodiless hunter does not capture the soul: our soul – is like a heavenly bird, the devil – a malicious hunter, seeking to swallow someone’s soul. As the bird, flying up, thus saves itself from the hunter, so we, when we see the enemy – the devil – hunting our soul with earthly things, must immediately abandon them with our heart, not becoming attached to them for a moment, and fly up with our thoughts to the Lord Jesus, our Savior, and thus easily escape from the snare of hunting.

290. A means of obtaining success in some good work. When you pray at home in evening or morning prayer, or in church during service, have care for accomplishing this work upon your heart and heartfelt desire to fulfill it for the glory of God. The Lord and His Most Pure Mother will surely enlighten you, place on your heart a bright thought, how to accomplish it. If you wish to write a talk or a sermon and do not know what to write about, there is no living water in your heart, simply take care of it sincerely in prayer, and the Lord and His Most Pure Mother will surely clearly show you the subject of the word and its parts; your mind and heart will be illuminated with clear knowledge of the aspects of the subject.

291. Daily give thanks from all your heart to God for giving you life in His image and likeness, a life that is rational, free, and immortal. Especially give thanks that He, you fallen into eternal death, has restored and directed you again to life, and not by mere action of almightiness, for this would have been inconsistent with His justice, but by giving as ransom for us His Only-Begotten Son, who suffered and died for us; give thanks further that He daily, falling through sins into death, gives you again life countless times – solely because you say from your heart: “I have sinned against the Father in heaven and before You” (Lk 15:18)! Give thanks further that He, foolishly throwing yourself into illnesses – harbingers of bodily death – often saves you from them, corrects your mistakes, and does not deprive you of your earthly life, knowing that it is precious to you, that you are not yet ready for eternal life. Give thanks to Him for all means of life, for all joys and sorrows in life, for all comes from Him, the All-Good Father, all from the first original Life, which has distributed and mutually given life to all.

292. Of noble and elevated spirit is that person who graciously and generously scatters all their gifts to all and rejoices that they have the opportunity to do good and pleasure to everyone, without thinking of reward for it. Of noble and elevated spirit is that person who never becomes arrogant with the one often visiting him and making use of his generosity, does not look down upon him in any respect, does not lower him by even one step in their thoughts, but always considers him such as when they first met him, or much higher. But usually we become arrogant with the one who became ours, as also with what became ours, and, growing accustomed to him or to it, soon, so to speak, become saturated with him and think little of him: we often place the person below the thing we love or the animal we love.

293. It is good sometimes in prayer to say a few of your own words, breathing hot faith and love for the Lord. Yes, not to conduct all your conversation with God in others’ words, not to remain a child in faith and hope, but to show your own mind, to belch from your heart your own good word, and moreover, we become accustomed to others’ words as if and grow cold. And how pleasing is it to the Lord these own words of ours, proceeding directly from a believing, loving, and grateful heart – it cannot be expressed: only that the soul at its own words to God trembles with joy, becomes all ablaze, awakens, is blessed. A few words you speak, and you taste such blessedness that you will not receive it in such measure from the most lengthy and touching others’ prayers, pronounced out of habit and insincerely.

294. When you ask something of the Lord, immediately contemplate the giving hand of His goodness, which out of the abundance of Divinity has given all to all, has given and gives to all, and to doubt that you will receive what you ask, count as foolishness, like the one of whom the prophet said, that he “said in his heart, “There is no God”” (Ps 13:1). So, asking of some good and generous person for help, we beforehand imagine his giving hand, for earthly benefactors, in likeness of their All-Good Father, are good and generous and give what we ask immediately after our request, as it is said: “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?” (Mt 7:9-11).

295. When you feel in your heart tormenting caprices or doubt regarding some subject of faith, then know that the enemy is in your heart – and he laughs at your ignorance, your weakness, and your instability in faith; immediately sincerely condemn your foolishness, your blindness, your sinful inconstancy in faith, and your ingratitude to God for the past light of your heart and for past favors received by you from faith in the subject (sacred relics), which now your heart, out of blind stubbornness, rejects or does not believe in as it once believed, – and the Master will have mercy on you: the torment will pass and it will become easy. O, the enemy! He wants everything in faith to be according to his lie.

296. The new person (renewed) finds pleasure in obedience, while the old one wants to resist and disobey. So let it be, O Lord, Your will! I accept as an expression of Your will everything that is required of me by those set over me, everything that others do to me (patience), everything that happens to me, for nothing happens without You. You being in all, through all and all.

297. God is such a spiritual Being from whom all proceeds and without whom nothing is conceivable, in whom is the beginning, continuation, life, and preservation of everything, who is infinitely beyond all time and space; who never began and never will end; before whom all is as if not existing; who is wholly everywhere; whom not a single atom displaces from any space, nor mountains, nor heavenly bodies, nor seas, nor air, nor fire, nor earth; who from eternity occupies himself every space occupied by whatever body, though it be earth, and himself by His power holds that body in being; who is in every place, on every inconceivable line of space, and himself sustains unlimitedly every space; – in a word, God is Being, that is, He alone is, the only Existent, unique, who is.

298. If your brother does something during service incorrectly or somewhat negligently – do not become irritated either internally or externally against him, but with magnanimity overlook his error, remembering that you yourself in life do many, many things wrong, that you yourself are a person with all weaknesses, that God is long-suffering and very merciful and forgives you without number many of your wrongs. Remember the words from the Lord’s Prayer: forgive us our debts, as we also forgave our debtors. These words ought always to remind us that we ourselves are at any time great debtors, great sinners before God, and that, remembering this, we should be humbled in the depth of our heart and not be very strict with the failings of our brothers, like us infirm, – that, as we ourselves do not judge ourselves strictly, so neither should we judge others strictly, for our brothers are our members, as if we ourselves. Irritability of temperament comes from self-ignorance, from pride, and from the fact that we do not reason about the severe damage to our nature and little know the gentle and humble Jesus.

299. Manifold sinful attachments of our heart the Lord tests in various ways: one (the greedy) He tests through loss of money or possessions, or some part of property; He permits thieves to steal, robbers to rob, – one through fire, another through flood, another through needless spending on unsuccessful enterprises, another through illness and spending on medicines and doctors connected with illness; one through the loss of wife, sister, friend or girlfriend; one through dishonor – all He tests in various ways, so as to reveal in each his weak, sickly sides of heart and teach each to correct himself. Many have “a sword piercing their soul so that… the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:35). Therefore, whatever loss from your property befalls you, believe that the Lord’s will is in it, and say: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has happened; may the name of the Lord be blessed” (Job 1:21).

300. Why does a person sometimes suddenly fall into such frenzy that becomes violently agitated, speaks rapidly, disjointedly, and incoherently, breaks his arms, tears out his hair or in rage beats others, breaks foolishly all that comes his way, and does other deeds befitting someone deranged and beside himself? Clearly because spirits of evil under heaven are acting in his heart, inciting people to all evil, breathing malice and murder against all and everything. Why are there and suicides of all kinds, as well as murderers of others? From the acting in the hearts of suicides and murderers of the age-old suicide-murderer – the devil. That is why Christ the Savior and the Christian faith command all meekness and humility, which do not allow evil and pride-seeking spirits to act in hearts, seeking death for all and each. The Lord says: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). Anger of man – a terrible, contrary-to-nature phenomenon in man; it is often aroused in the heart over the most trivial causes, because of self-love, pride hidden in our heart. One must remember that “man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires” (Jac 1:20).

Part Two

Part Two §815-854

May the living water of the Holy Spirit fill my heart and may rivers of living water flow from my heart for the glory of God and the salvation of God’s people.

FOR the glory of the Triune God. Amen.

815. Lord! I am a wonder of Your goodness, wisdom, and almightiness, inasmuch as I have been brought by You from non-being into being, preserved by You in being until now, have, by the goodness, mercies, and love for humanity of Your Only-Begotten Son, to inherit eternal life if I remain true to You, have been raised by the terrible sacrament of the offering of Yourself in sacrifice by Your Son from the horror of terrible fall, redeemed from eternal destruction. I glorify Your goodness, Your infinite might, Your wisdom! But complete the wonders of Your goodness, almightiness, and wisdom upon me, sinful, and save me by whatever judgments You know, me unworthy servant of Yours, and lead me into Your eternal Kingdom, grant me to inherit never-aging life, the day without evening.

816. My heart must cling to the one God: “good indeed it is to cling to God” (Ps 72:28), yet it – what blindness and distortion! – clings to the pleasures of this age: to food, drink, fleshly pleasure, to money, to this dust, to clothes, to this corruption, to fading flowers, to patterns, to designs enticing the eye, to luxuriously adorned chambers, and so on. Strange thing! Me, a Christian, a heavenly person, occupies all that is earthly and little – the heavenly. I have been transplanted to heaven in Christ, yet cling with all my heart firmly to the earth, and apparently never wish to be in heaven, preferring always to remain on earth, though the earthly, despite its pleasantness, troubles and torments me, though I see that all earthly is unreliable, mortal, swiftly passes, though I know and feel that nothing earthly can satisfy my spirit, calm and sweeten my heart, constantly agitated and grieved by worldly vanity. How long will I, a heavenly person, be earthly? How long will I, flesh, child of God, “born not of blood or of the will of the flesh… but of God” (Jn 1:13) in holy baptism, how long until I wholly turn to God? Lord! Draw my heart to You with Your Holy Spirit. Lord! Turn my heart away from the vanity of the earth. Lord! Without You I can do nothing.

817. All that glitters on earth we love very much: gold, silver, precious stones, crystal, gleaming clothes – why do we not love the future glory to which the Lord calls us? Why do we not strive for enlightenment like the sun? “Then the righteous”, it is said, “will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom” (Mt 13:43). For this reason we have not loved – we have distorted our soul’s nature through sin and instead of heaven have clung to earth, instead of incorruptibility to corruption, have loved earthly glitter, temporal, mortal, and deceptive. But why do we have such strong love of glitter? For this reason, that our soul was created for heavenly light and at first was wholly light, wholly radiance; light is innate in it, innate is the feeling and desire for light. Direct this striving to the seeking of heavenly light!

818. When you see a beautiful maiden or woman, or a handsome youth, immediately raise yourself to the supreme, most holy Beauty, the source of all earthly and heavenly beauty, that is, to God; glorify Him for making such beauty from earth; marvel at the beauty of the image of God in a person, shining even in our damaged state, imagine what is the beauty of the holy people of God, the holy Angels, the Mother of God adorned with divine glory; imagine the ineffable sweetness of the face of God, which we will see, and do not be seduced by earthly beauty, this flesh and blood. The pleasure of lust is sweet, but sinful, destructive, and opposed to God. Do not cling in heart to maiden or woman’s beauty, but to the one Lord God, creator of all beauty for Himself, and say: “good indeed it is to cling to God”, the only God, “not to fleshly beauty passing away” (Ps 72:28).

819. Despondency, befalling us from failure in some work, especially priestly work, which we do for others, and shame on the face originates from our bodiless enemy, who seeks us everywhere to devour us, like a roaring lion, and compels us to every failure, to every sin. Therefore, to be untripped in work, one must prepare for it beforehand by reasonable study of it, joined with abstinence and prayer; one must strive for perfection in all and not give place to the devil. If failure occurs in work, one must not give way to despondency, but recognizing before God one’s sin and one’s weakness, to humble oneself before Him, to reject one’s self-love, and not being ashamed, to confess one’s sin and one’s carelessness, laziness, or weakness, and to cast one’s sin into the abyss of God’s mercy, asking Him for His mercy and help for the future for good and successful accomplishment of one’s work.

820. In prayer and in every deed of your life avoid suspicion and doubt and devilish fancy. Let the eye of your soul be simple, so that the whole body of your prayer, your deeds, and your life be light.

821. During public prayer let all your heart be in God and never for an instant cling to anything earthly; also have flaming love for human souls, for the sake of God’s love and zeal for their salvation; pray for them as for those in great distress. We are all, as it is said, in distresses, subject to the deception of the evil one.

822. Do not eat heartily from hunger – you will burden both heart and body. Without greed, quietly eat, with reflection, to the glory of God – remembering God the Feeder, but all the more His incorruptible food, His Body and Blood, how He Himself, for love’s sake, gave Himself to us for food and drink, and about the holy Gospel word.

823. All that disturbs and as it were undermines the heart in its foundation, torments it – comes from the devil, for he is eternal disturbance and torment. The Lord is the peace of the heart. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27). As many passions, so much disturbance and torment; as many attachments, so many sharp arrows piercing the heart, and so much darkening. Most of his life a person is in spiritual darkness.

824. A thought of boastfulness and self-gratification came – say: I am nothing; all that is good in me the grace of God accomplishes. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1Cor 4:7) “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). If a thought of disgust toward some member of your neighbor or yourself came – say: all of man is a beautiful work of God’s hands; everything in him is arranged well. “And indeed, all” “things God made were very good” (Gen 1:31).

825. What is your obligation as a partaker of the Divine Mysteries? You should “set your minds on things that are above, … where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1-2), and not set your minds on earthly things, for Christ descended to earth for this very purpose, to lead us to heaven. “In My Father’s house are many rooms; … I go to prepare a place for you” (Jn 14:2). “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3,20). “Let the little children come to Me … for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Lk 18:16). You see what is the final goal for which Christ came down from heaven to earth, for which He gives us His Divine Mysteries – Body and Blood? This goal is the granting to us of the Heavenly Kingdom. Strive then toward it.

826. Pride – a demon; malice – the same demon; envy – the same demon; abominable lust – the same demon; violent blasphemy – the same demon; violent doubt in the truth – a demon; despondency – a demon; manifold passions, yet the same Satan acts in all; manifold passions, yet together – Satan’s barking in various tunes, and a person becomes one spirit with Satan. Subjected to the evil and furious violence of manifold passions and the devil’s gnawing while performing various deeds of God, accept these sufferings as suffering for the name of Christ, and rejoice in your sufferings, thanking God; for the devil is preparing for you, without knowing it, the most brilliant crowns from the Lord! Amen. Resist the Devil without ceasing.

827. Do not be grieved against people expressing their pride and arrogance or malice, touchiness, and impatience toward you or others, but, remembering that you yourself are subject to the same and greater sins and passions, pray for them and deal with them gently. “If someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens” (bear if someone has offended you, if it is burdensome for you – bear this), “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:1-2).

828. Do you pay sufficient attention to the state of your soul: is it healthy and, inasmuch as it is alive, is its life firm, and if temporal earthly life is prosperous, is eternal life, eternal well-being somehow assured – for example, by faith – is there living faith in your soul in God, in the Savior, in the Church – deeds of goodness, meekness, humility, lack of malice, love of truth and honesty, temperance, chastity, patience, obedience, diligence, and the like? In the opposite case all your work is in vain: the soul does many things, perhaps worthy of admiration, but itself will perish. “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mt 16:26).

829. The day is a symbol of the transience of earthly life: morning comes, then day, then evening, and with the onset of night the whole day has passed. So also life will pass. First infancy, like early morning, then childhood and manhood, like full dawn and midday, and then old age, like evening, if God grant, and then – inevitably death.

830. Man wherever he is, but then returns everything home. So the Christian too, whoever he may be, notable or simple, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, wherever he is, whatever position he holds in society, whatever he does, must remember that he is not at home, but on a journey, on the road, and must return home – to father, to mother, to older brothers and sisters; and this home is heaven, the father is God, the mother is the Most Pure Theotokos, the older brothers and sisters are the Angels and holy people of God; that all earthly duties, affairs, are trifles, and the real work is the salvation of the soul, the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments, the purification of the heart.

831. How to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your mind? With all your heart – that is, undividedly, not divided between love of God and love of the world and generally of creation; if, for example, you pray – pray not with a divided heart, do not be distracted by empty thoughts, worldly attachments, be wholly in God, in His love, with all your soul – that is, not with just one power of the soul, not with mind alone, without the participation of heart and will, – with all your might, and not half-heartedly or lightly; when you have to fulfill some commandment, fulfill it with all zeal, to the sweat and blood and laying down of life, if necessary, and not lazily, unwillingly, or with reluctance.

832. How perverted is this world! Here merriment, music – there funeral prayers, singing, weeping for the dead; here wealth, luxury, magnificence – there bare poverty, lack of everything, lack of proper and sufficiently warming clothes, tightness, disgusting filth, dampness. Here blooming health, abundance of strength – there illnesses, weakness, exhaustion; here enlightenment, much learning – there ignorance, darkness; or: here with secular education is high spiritual enlightenment and piety, and in this union there is beautiful and pleasant harmony, spiritual beauty; here secular enlightenment and with it disbelief, immorality – this is spiritual ugliness, discord, dissonance, tearing at the soul; here success in all enterprises – there failure; here everything comes easily: both money and weight in society, honors, distinctions – there, struggle with all your might and achieve nothing or achieve very little with enormous efforts. Who will resolve this apparent contradiction? God alone. We can only conjecture.

833. One bold to a person is bold also to God, as many of us are. Respect the magnificent, priceless image of God in a person and be patient with the mistakes and delusions of fallen man, and as God will be patient with your mistakes – because the enemy of God and of mankind, unable to pour out his malice on God, strives to pour it out on His image – on man, as well as all his filth, his darkness, his pride, envy, and the like to inflict on him. Respect man then, save him; guard yourself; do not become irritated, do not embitter, do not envy, do not offend, do not lie, do not commit adultery, do not steal, and so on.

834. Our soul is simple, like thought, and swift like thought and like lightning. In an instant it can be wounded by sin, cling to mortal things; in an instant can fall away from God’s love and love of neighbor, from a single wrong thought, from a single passionate desire, from a thought of enmity, and therefore we must be constantly on guard over our heart, so that it not turn aside into words or thoughts of cunning, but remain always in God’s simplicity and purity, in love of God and neighbor.

835. The best moments on earth are those in which we think on things above, generally, when we know or defend the truth, this heavenly dweller, citizen. Only then do we truly live. This means that essential spiritual gains require that we most often rise above the earth, mountains, to heaven – where our true life is, our true homeland, to which there will be no end.

836. Looking at the manifold diversions of people, at the exclusive concern for the flesh, you think: is there a soul in people? And if there is, why do they not care, not think about its salvation, for it is given to countless sins, which are its death, and death eternal? Is there eternal torment and eternal blessedness? And if there is, why so few strive or there is no striving at all to escape eternal torment and inherit eternal blessedness? This is what amazes me. And further: why does the fearful hour of death not frighten people? After all, we will not live eternally on earth. Sooner or later our turn will come, and we will be told: Return to the dust, O sons of men, from which you were created. O, our scatteredness, our pride, our attachment, our fastening to the earth! Sinners, do you think that God has nothing with which to punish you? O, He has wherewith, He has! This is Gehenna of fire, the lake of fire which even Satan himself trembles at, the worm that does not die, and gnashing of teeth. But why do I turn my speech only to you! And to myself, and to myself I must say the same: for I am the first of sinners, to whom the torments of hell were appointed, but from whom Christ, upon whom all my hope is, saved me. But do you all, my brothers, have faith in Christ, in His Gospel? Where is your evangelical life? Who of you reads the Gospel daily, this greatest gift of God and law of life? “All have turned away, all have become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom 3:12; cf. Ps 13:3).

837. Educated and half-educated youth rarely goes to church, generally does not conduct the work of their spiritual upbringing, considering it as if unnecessary and giving itself over to worldly vanity. Attention should be paid to this. This is the fruit of pride, lack of spiritual development. They consider church attendance and common worship as something for the simple folk and women, forgetting that Angels with fear serve in the church together with humans and count this for themselves as the greatest blessedness.

838. Does not coldness toward public worship come from the fact that some do not understand it, while others, though having studied the science of worship, had it taught to them dryly, without examples, to reason alone, whereas worship, being high contemplation of mind, is at the same time, and chiefly, peace, sweetness, and blessedness for the heart?

839. A priest, as a physician of souls, himself must be free from soul illnesses, that is, from passions, so as to heal others; as a shepherd, himself must be pastured on the fat pastures, evangelical and patristic, so as to know where to pasture the reasonable sheep; himself must be skilled in combat with mental wolves, so as to know how to drive them away from Christ’s flock; must be skilled and strong in prayer, abstinence; must not be bound by worldly desires and pleasures, especially by money-love, love of glory, pride; in a word – must himself be light, so as to illuminate others, spiritual salt, so as to preserve others from spiritual corruption, and himself be free from the corruption of passions. Otherwise, any spiritually sick person can say to him: “Physician, heal yourself” (Lk 4:23) first, then I will allow you to heal me. “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Mt 7:5).

840. The heart is fine, light, spiritual, heavenly by nature – guard it; do not weigh it down, do not make it earthly, be most extreme in temperance in food and drink and in general in bodily pleasures. The heart is a temple of God. “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person” (1Cor 3:17).

841. Be a Christian in heart, that is, always be sincere in prayer, in dealing with neighbors, always believing, hoping, meek, not malicious, benevolent to all, just, not money-loving, compassionate, merciful, temperate, chaste, patient, obedient, courageous.

842. O, how dearly God our Lord Jesus Christ valued our soul, its salvation, in descending for us from the heavens, taking upon Himself our soul and body, suffering terribly and dying for us! How do I value my soul, its eternal salvation? O, I do not know how to value it and have not learned until now to correspond to my Savior’s love, having wholly attached myself to the earth, having wholly given myself over to sloth and various passions. How can there be God’s love in you, God’s Kingdom in you, when your heart is ruled by love of the earth – love of pleasure, love of money, and pride? Impossible until you “crucify the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24): for “no one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24) and “love of the world is enmity toward God” (Jac 4:4). “Do not love the world or anything in the world … For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life … passes away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1Jn 2:15-17).

843. The Lord God our, for unrelenting request of His mercies from Him, approves us, seeing in our unrelenting request our faith and hope in Him; and we sinners become angered at those poor ones who daily and unrelentingly ask us for alms – even at children, in whom trust in people is especially great, faith in others’ goodness lacks reasons, for they themselves are still simple and good, not malicious. Being money-loving, pleasure-loving, proud, we often look upon them with contempt, raise our voice at them – innocent sheep – in anger, fly into a rage, unwilling to understand that persistent requests to us for alms are driven to them by hunger, lack of clothes, shoes, the pressing demands of a landlord or landlady for money for coal, which they borrow from them. Are they not those of whom the prophet David cries out against us to the Lord: “we are filled with contempt, … we are filled with the scorn of those who are arrogant and the contempt of the proud” (Ps 122:3-4)? And surely, sooner or later their mournful cry to heaven will reach. What am I saying? Long ago it reached to the ears of the Lord of Hosts, and shall stir His anger against us and righteous vengeance.

844. Hitherto I have not lacked for anything in showing mercy to others, nor shall I lack even unto the end, for the Lord is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebr 13:8). Not without reason is it said: the hand of the giver will not lack. Hitherto the Lord has increased for me temporal blessings, and has not taken them away. I glorify the mercies of the Lord, His abundant providence.

845. Whoever becomes accustomed to giving account of their life at confession here will not be afraid to give an answer at the Fearful Judgment of Christ. Therefore confession with humility and repentance was established here, so that we, cleansed and corrected through repentance here, give a shameless answer at the Fearful Judgment of Christ. This is the first encouragement to sincere repentance, and moreover necessarily annual. The longer we do not repent, the worse for ourselves; the more entangled the bonds of sin become, the more difficult it becomes, therefore, to give account. The second encouragement is peace: the more sincere the confession, the more peaceful the soul becomes. Sins are secret snakes, gnawing at the heart of man and all his being; they do not give him peace, ceaselessly suck his heart; sins are prickly thorns, constantly pricking the soul; sins are spiritual darkness. The repentant should bear fruits of repentance.

846. Repentance is aided by consciousness, memory, imagination, feeling, will. As we sin with all the powers of the soul, so repentance should be all-soul. Repentance only in words, without intention of amendment and without feeling of contrition, is called hypocritical. Consciousness of sins is obscured, it must be clarified; feeling is stifled, dulled, it must be awakened; will grows dull, weakens for amendment, it must be forced: “The kingdom of heaven is taken by force” (Mt 11:12). Confession must be hearty, deep, complete.

847. Ah, my brothers! will we not all soon disappear from the face of the earth and be as if never existed? Where then are the deeds of love? Where is the fulfillment of the Creator’s commandments? Where is the spirit of Christ in us? Where is lack of malice, where is humility, where is love for souls, where is detachment from the temporal? Where is zeal for spiritual goods? Frivolous, foolish are we! We have distorted the image of our souls, distorted our life, perverted it, turned it upside down. Instead of Christ we please the devil.

848. This quiet, beautiful, star-sown sky will represent to itself a terrible spectacle someday before the appearing of the Lord from the heavens. O, sinners, be instructed daily by the sight of the heavens, when it is possible to be instructed. “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven” (Mt 24:29).

849. There is, brothers and Christians, a life that is true, real, and there is a life that is seeming, false. To live so as to drink, eat, dress, walk, enrich oneself, generally to live for earthly pleasures or cares, as well as to conduct intrigues, schemes, judge and talk of others, is a seeming life; to live so as to please God and neighbor, to pray for the salvation of their souls and in every way help their salvation, means to truly live. The first life is endless spiritual death, the second – never-ending life of the spirit.

850. The Lord said of His Church: “on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Mt 16:18). This is said as of the pastors of the Church, or church hierarchy, and of all truly believing, as also of all mysteries, of all dogmas and commandments of holy Orthodox faith, and of all ritual orders of mysteries, for example, liturgy, priesthood, marriage, baptism, chrismation, anointing, which are established for all ages and have already passed many centuries and thousands of years unchanged. Behold how firm the Church is, founded by the Lord! Remember these words of the Lord and do not waver at all in performing any mystery. Be like adamant firm.

851. I love to pray in the temple of God, especially in the holy altar, at the altar or at God’s table, for I am wondrously changed in the temple by God’s grace; in repentant and tender prayer, thorns fall from my soul, the bonds of passions, and I become so light; all the glamor, all the allure of passions disappear, as if I am dying to the world, and the world with all its goods; I come alive in God and for God, for the sole God, and am wholly permeated by Him and become one spirit with Him; I become like a child comforted in the lap of a mother; my heart then is full of supernatural, sweet peace; my soul is illuminated with heavenly light; everything is light, you look at everything correctly, you feel friendship and love toward all, even enemies, and willingly excuse and forgive them. O, how blessed is a soul with God! The Church is truly an earthly paradise.

852. What is the most terrible thing for a person? Death? Yes, death. Each of us cannot without horror imagine how he will die and breathe his last breath. And how parents are tormented when their beloved children die, when they lie before their eyes lifeless! But fear not and grieve not beyond measure, brothers. Jesus Christ, our Savior, by His death conquered our death, and by His resurrection laid the foundation of our resurrection, and we each week, each Sunday, celebrate in Christ the risen our general future resurrection and begin eternal life, to which the present temporal life is a brief, though narrow and sorrowful, path; the death of a true Christian is nothing more than sleep until the day of resurrection, or birth into a new life. So, celebrating each week the resurrection of Christ and your resurrection from the dead, learn constantly to die to sin and rise in soul from dead deeds, be enriched by virtue, and grieve not hopelessly for the dead; learn to meet death without horror, as a determination of the Heavenly Father, which, with Christ’s resurrection from the dead, has lost its terror.

853. Sin is senseless and destructive. For example, a drunkard from excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks is both sick and does various unsuitable and shameful deeds about which it is shameful even to think and remember, yet continues to get drunk; a greedy glutton of food feels after much-eating heaviness, dulling of abilities, binding of tongue, and himself finds that he becomes as it were animal or beastlike, for he breathes often with malice and hatred toward those living with him and eating with him or asking daily alms from him – is subject to confinement and sorrow, deprived of peace and tranquility, becomes incapable of higher contemplation or being a true Christian, living for the higher purpose of being, yet continues to eat and overeat; an adulterer sees that through adultery he defiles and dishonors his nature, soul and body, subjects them to illnesses, perverts the order of life established by the Creator, subjects himself to shame, yet continues to commit adultery; a money-lover sees that wealth troubles him, deprives him of spiritual freedom and makes him its slave, turns him away from God and from love of neighbor, draws away from true life and brings death to the soul, takes away peace of soul and body, imposes heavy cares, yet continues to gather great wealth and add himself a great burden, until, worn out by cares, he falls ill and dies, having lost his soul through acquiring wealth. Such is every sin – pride, malice, envy, and so on.

854. One must kill in oneself earthly love, love (passion) for earthly fleshly beauty, for pleasures, for gain, for the flesh, for honor, and enliven love for heaven – one’s true homeland, for the soul – a heavenly citizeness, for virtue, – to hate all that the flesh loves, to love what it despises, what it fears (for example, meditation on death, on judgment), or poverty, the sick and suffering.

Part Two §855-894

855. Let them then laugh at you, resist you when you are under the influence of some passion; not at all be offended by those laughing and resisting, for they are doing you good; crucify your self-love and acknowledge the untruth, the delusion of your heart. But grieve bitterly over those laughing at the words and deeds of faith and piety, truth, over those resisting the good that you do and wish to plant in others. May God preserve you from becoming embittered against them, for they are pitiful and worthy of tears. – Glory to You, God, my Savior, who freed me from the tyranny of passions, by my prayer.

When you are in the church, remember that you stand in the living presence of the Lord God, before His face, before His eyes, and in the presence of the Mother of God, the holy Angels, and the church of the firstborn—that is, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, ascetics, and the righteous, and all the saints. Keep this memory and awareness always when you are in the church, and stand with reverence, willingly, your heart participating in the divine service.

I am a moral nullity: without the Lord, I have no truly firm thought or good feeling, and no truly good deed; without Him I cannot drive away from myself a sinful thought, a passionate feeling—for instance, malice, envy, lust, pride, and so on. The Lord is the completion of all good that I think, feel, and do. O, how boundlessly broad is the Lord’s grace working in me! All things are the Lord for me, and so clearly, constantly. What is mine is only sinfulness, what are mine are only weaknesses. O, how we ought to love the Lord, Who willed to call us from non-being into being, to honor us with His image and likeness, to dwell us in the sweetness of paradise, to subject all the earth to us, and—when we did not keep His commandments, were seduced by the devil’s deception, and grievously offended our Creator through our ingratitude, and received into ourselves the qualities of the tempter: pride, malice, envy, ingratitude, and all his wicked arts, by which he began to teach us as his captives—He did not cast us off forever, but was pleased to redeem us from sin, curse, and death, to which we fell through sin; and in the fullness of time He Himself appeared on earth, took on our nature; He Himself became my Teacher, Physician, Worker of miracles, Savior; He Himself accepted punishment for us, died for us, so that we might not perish eternally, rose so that He might also raise us after death, ascended to heaven so that He might lead us there as well, fallen through sin, and became for us all: food, drink, light, purification, holiness, health, strength upholding, saving, preserving, and showing mercy.

I am nothing, but by the grace of the priesthood, through the distribution of the Divine Body and Blood, I become a secondary or tertiary instrument of the healing of diseases; through me the grace of the Spirit regenerates infants and the mature into new life, accomplishes in the mystery of the Eucharist the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, unites the faithful with the Godhead; through me it binds and looses human sins, closes and opens heaven, bestows soul-saving counsels, rules, and so forth. O, how honorable is the rank of the priesthood! Brethren, do you see how many blessings the Creator and Savior pours out upon you through priests!

Very often the mist of malicious spirits surrounds our heart and does not allow us to speak peacefully with our neighbors, who have offended us once or several times or shown us ill-will. We must earnestly beseech the Lord that He Himself would disperse this mist of malice and fill our heart with kindness and love, even toward our enemies, for they, blinded by the passions—pride, envy, avarice, malice—sometimes do not know what they do, just as the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ did not know, as they persecuted Him throughout His life and finally put Him to death with shameful death. We must remember that Christian faith consists precisely in this: to love one’s enemies; for if we love only “those who love us”, what “more do we do, and do not the pagans do the same”? (Mt 5:46-47)

“Seek”, first of all, “the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33). How is one to seek, first of all, the kingdom of God? In the following way: suppose you wish to go or travel, to sail somewhere for some worldly, temporal need—first pray to the Lord that He would correct the paths of your heart, and then also the bodily path before you, or that He would guide the path of your life according to His commandments, and desire this with all your heart, and frequently renew your prayer about this. The Lord, seeing your sincere desire and effort to walk according to His commandments, will gradually correct all your paths. Further, for instance, if you wish to make the air in your room clean or you go for a walk in the fresh air, remember the clean and unclean heart. Many of us are lovers of refreshing the air in the room (and this is splendid) or of a walk in the fresh air and do not even think of the necessity of the purity of the air or of the heart (the spiritual, so to speak, air, the breath of life) and, living in fresh air, allow themselves unclean thoughts, unclean stirrings of heart, or even foul speech and actual fleshly foul deeds. If you seek material light, remember spiritual light, which is necessary for the soul and without which it remains in the darkness of passions, in the darkness of spiritual death. “I am the light in the world”, the Lord says, “so that everyone believing in Me will not remain in darkness” (Jn 12:46). If you see the fury and hear the howling of a storm or read about shipwrecks, remember the storm of human passions, which raise every day their howl and turmoil in human hearts and subject the spiritual ship of the soul, or the ship of human society, to wreckage, and earnestly beseech the Lord to calm the storm of sins, as once He calmed the storm on the sea with His word, and to root out from our hearts our passions and restore everlasting peace. If you feel hunger or thirst and wish to eat or drink, remember the hunger or thirst of the soul (it thirsts for righteousness, justification in Jesus Christ, sanctification), which if you do not satisfy, your soul may die of hunger, oppressed by passions, weakened, tormented, and in satisfying bodily hunger, do not forget to satisfy, all the more and before, spiritual hunger through conversation with God, sincere repentance for sins, reading the gospel history and gospel teachings, especially through communion of the Divine Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ. If you love to dress finely or when you put on clothing, remember the incorruptible garment of righteousness in which our soul must be clothed, or of Christ Jesus, Who is our spiritual garment, as it is said: “as many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). The passion for fine dressing very often completely displaces from the heart even the thought of the incorruptible garment of the soul and turns the whole life into vain concern for elegance in dress. If you are a student or pupil of some educational institution, or a civil servant of some department, an officer of some military unit, or an engineer, painter, sculptor, factory owner, or craftsman of some trade—remember that the first science for each of you is to be a true Christian, to believe sincerely in the triune God, to converse with God every day in prayer, to participate in the divine service, to observe the canons and ordinances of the Church, and before work, during work, and after work to bear in your heart the name of Jesus, for He is our light, our strength, our holiness, our help.

A marvelous thing: no matter how much we fuss over our health, however carefully we guard ourselves, whatever the healthiest and most pleasant foods we eat, whatever healthy drinks we drink, however much we refresh ourselves in the fresh air, in the end it turns out that we are subject to diseases and decay. The saints, who despised the flesh, mortified it with constant abstinence and fasting, lying on the bare earth, vigils, labors, unceasing prayer, both immortalized their soul and their flesh: our bodies, much nourished and gratified with delights, give off a stench after death, and sometimes even in life, while their bodies are fragrant and bloom both in life and after death. A marvelous thing: we, in building up, destroy our body, while they, in destroying, built it up; we, anointing it with fragrances, do not escape its stench, while they, taking thought not of the fragrance of the body, but of making the soul a fragrance for God, perfumed their bodies. My brethren! Understand the task, the purpose of your life. We must mortify the many-passionate body or the passions of the flesh through abstinence, labor, and prayer, not enliven it and its passions through gluttony, satiation, and idleness.

It is good in every respect to give alms to the poor: besides receiving mercy at the Fearful Judgment, here on earth, those who give alms often receive great mercies from their neighbors, and what others obtain for large sums, is given to them freely. In truth, the most philanthropic, most righteous, and most generous Heavenly Father, whose children are merciful ones, will He not reward them here also, to encourage them to greater deeds, or at least to the continuation of the same deeds of mercy and to the correction of the unmerciful, who mock the merciful? He will reward them, and justly and righteously.

How many empty and constant pretexts does the hater of mankind present to us for hatred of our neighbors, so that we could rage against people endlessly, harbor malice endlessly, live according to the destructive hellish will of demons. Do not chase after his phantoms, abandon all enmity and love everyone, for love is from God.

Lord, You continually conquer hell in me, through my prayer, and if I am not yet in hell even now, this is Your mercy, Conqueror of hell, Lord! Glory to You, Benefactor, our Savior! What would become of us without You? We would be very beasts and would have destroyed one another. What happens with individuals would happen with peoples. If individuals and peoples lived according to Your Gospel, there would be no enmity, civil wars, wars. When will we fully realize the necessity for our temporal and eternal good—to live according to the Gospel? But now how few there are even who read the Gospel!

Lord! I confess before You that life, health, and strength of spiritual and bodily powers are not found in a dacha, not in the forest, but in You, in Your temple, all the more in the Liturgy and in Your life-giving Mysteries! O, greatest blessedness of the Holy Mystery! O, life-giving Holy Mysteries! O, unspeakable love of the Divine Mysteries! O, wonderful and unceasing thought of the Lord God for our salvation and deification through the Divine Mysteries! O, image of eternal life in the Divine Mysteries!

My Lady, Most Holy Mother of God! I prayed before the Liturgy to You, that You would obtain for me the grace to celebrate it with great power, to the glory of God, to the salvation of the world, and my own! You have arranged all things for good. I thank You, most kind Helper, Swift to hear, Hope assured!

How many blessings has Christ’s faith bestowed upon me until now! Without speaking of countless other blessings, I will speak of one: how many soul-disturbing passions has it driven away and brought me peace! How many crooked desires of the heart has it corrected! How many times have sins been cleansed and the soul saved from spiritual death! And how near is our Lord to the believer! He is like air, like the breath of our lips, the breath of our heart, the breath of our soul.

Lord, I thank You with all my heart for the gracious breathings of Your Holy Spirit during public and domestic worship, for the cleansing of sins, for peace, compunction, and tears, for fatherly consolation, for boldness, for strength.

As a priest, pray especially for the cleansing, enlightenment, sanctification, and renewal of the people of God and for your own renewal, for even though you often drink the Blood of the New Covenant and taste the life-giving Flesh of the Lamb of God, which can quickly transform and renew you, yet through your negligence, you have not been transformed and renewed to this day, being given over in the depth of your heart to the same passions that were in you before. Bring to God fervent prayer for your own renewal and that of His people. This is the most pleasing sacrifice to God. Bring it with faith, with firm hope, with sincere love: for to Him Who came from the old garment to make a new one and to pour new wine into old wineskins, prayer for renewal is a fragrant incense and a cooperation with the Lord’s intentions for the regeneration of the human race, grown old through sin.

For one who fulfills obedience without murmuring, there is great fruit for the soul: as we see from the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, for obedience, was exalted above all principality and power and dominion as Man; from the example of all the saints of God, who for obedience to the Son of God and His Gospel were deemed worthy of incorruptible crowns of heaven and eternal life with God and His holy Angels. Moreover, for one who fulfills obedience there is great fruit for the body as well: for what the lazy lose, the diligent and zealous, bearing obedience, gain. Therefore obedience is fruitful for both soul and body, and if not fruitful for the body, then surely for the soul. So let everyone obey in what is good, but not in what is evil.

To be humble means to consider yourself worthy of every humiliation, insult, persecution, and blows for your sins; and to be gentle means to bear patiently and without malice wrongs done against you, slander, and so forth, and to pray for your enemies.

The dare of sorrow that you thrust innocently into another’s heart will enter your own heart also, according to the strict law of retribution: “in the measure you measure out, so will it be measured out to you” (Mt 7:2). If you do not wish for sorrow, do not inflict it on another.

If people toil so long in worldly pursuits and often make us wait in vain for them to finish, should we, servants of God, not work slowly, methodically, consciously, with feeling, with great reverence and zeal for the Lord God, reading prayers clearly, distinctly? Let them rather wait for us than we for them. May this be so, Lord, in every sacred service, in every celebration of the mysteries. And You, give all this to us: “for without You we cannot” “do anything” (Jn 15:5).

A true Christian never forgets that he is a captive of the devil in this world and groans continually for spiritual freedom, granted by the Son of God to all who believe in Him and who strive to free themselves from bondage to sin; a true Christian lives cautiously, using all earthly things moderately, does not spend time in idle talk and vain games, does not practice usury or envy, prays constantly, and repents of his sins.

People say: it is no great matter to eat meat during a fast, the fast is not in food; it is no great matter to wear expensive, fine clothes, to go to the theater, to parties, to masquerades, to have splendid expensive dishes, furniture, an expensive carriage, spirited horses, to gather and accumulate money, and so forth; but—why does our heart turn away from God, the Source of life? Why do we lose eternal life? Is it not through gluttony? Is it not through precious garments, like the rich man in the Gospel? Is it not through theaters and masquerades? Why do we become hard-hearted toward the poor, even toward our own relatives? Is it not through our attachment to delights, generally to belly, to clothing, to expensive dishes, furniture, carriage, to money, and so forth? Is it possible to “serve both God and mammon” (Mt 6:24), to be a friend of the world and a friend of God, to serve Christ and Belial? It is not possible. Why did Adam and Eve lose paradise, fall into sin and death? Was it not for food alone? Look carefully—why do we neglect the salvation of our soul, which cost the Son of God so dearly; why do we add sin to sin, continually fall into resistance to God, into a vain life, if not through attachment to earthly things, and especially to earthly delights? Why does our heart become hardened? Why do we become flesh and not spirit, corrupting our moral nature, if not through attachment to food, drink, and so forth—earthly goods? How then can we say afterward that eating meat in a fast is of no importance? This very thing, that we speak thus, is pride, folly, disobedience, rebelliousness toward God, and separation from Him.

From what deep wound, from what mortal wound, from what deadly breath of sin did the heavenly Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, come to save us! Who can fully grasp this? No one. Only in part, from our experience, some of us see the depth of the abyss into which we have fallen through sin—our utter powerlessness for good, all the force and abyss of evil or sin lurking in our heart. But even this divine grace, which illuminates our darkened hearts, allows us to see. By natural reason alone, man cannot see this, and therefore cannot perceive and feel the need for correction or have the power for this correction and renewal.

I thank the Lord, strong in goodness and good in His power, for swift and great mercy, for the healing of deep wounds of the heart caused by sin. What prolonged home prayer could not accomplish, one touch upon the life-giving, glorious, and awesome throne of God in the temple of the holy first-apostles Peter and Paul accomplished: the wound of the heart, confusion, sorrow, and distress suddenly vanished, as though a great mountain fell away from my heart, and I became peaceful; my heart became light, spacious, and bold. Wondrous are Your works, O Lord! Wondrous are You, seated upon the throne of Your glory, in Christian temples. O Lord, most righteous Judge and most compassionate Savior and Almighty! Glory to Your invincible goodness, O King of ages!

Brethren! among the creatures created by God, there are temporal, fleeting ones, such as all irrational animate and inanimate creatures, organic and inorganic, and indeed the world itself which must pass away: “the form of this world is passing away” (1Cor 7:31)—and there are eternal, imperishable ones, such as: Angels and human souls, demons themselves with their Satan. For man, earthly life, life in the body, serves only as preparation for eternal life, which is to begin after the death of the body. Therefore one must use this present life earnestly for preparation for the other, and while working more on weekdays for earthly life, on Sundays and feast days work wholly for the Lord God, dedicating them to divine worship, to reading God’s word, to meditation on God, to soul-saving conversations, to good deeds, especially to mercy. He sins gravely who neglects the work of his spiritual education for eternal life in the heavenly world. How can one forget one’s final destiny! How can one be so ungrateful before the Creator, Who created us according to His image and likeness in incorruptibility and for union with Himself, and redeemed us by His cross and opened for us the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven! How can many of us “become like unreasoning beasts and resemble them” (Ps 48:13,21)! Lift up your hearts (the exclamation from the Liturgy).

The body, as the temporal garment of the soul, is perishable and does not constitute the true life of man; true life is spiritual life. Tear and destroy a man’s garment, and the man himself remains alive: so too, after slaying, after death, after the decay of the body, the soul remains alive. Therefore let us give the greatest care to the soul, to its salvation!

O holy temple! how good and sweet it is to pray in you! For where is fervent prayer heard, if not within your walls, before the throne of God and before the face of Him who sits upon it! Truly the soul melts from the compunction of prayer, and tears flow down the cheeks like water. It is sweet to pray for all.

I marvel at the greatness and life-giving power of the Divine Mysteries: an old woman, spitting up blood and completely exhausted, having eaten nothing, from communion in the Holy Mysteries which I gave her, on that very same day began to recover. A young woman, who was dying outright, after communion in the Holy Mysteries, on that very same day began to recover, to eat, drink, and speak, when she had been almost unconscious, writhing violently, and could not eat or drink anything. Glory to Your life-giving and awesome Mysteries, O Lord!

Be faithful to God always and in all things: when you speak the Lord’s Prayer, speak each word sincerely, with reverence, fixing your mind and heart on the one God alone, paying attention to no one else; when you read any other prayer, read it again with all your soul, not wavering in heart, not paying improper attention to anyone or anything. The enemy of our salvation especially strives to draw away our heart and mind from God when we approach to serve Him, and seeks to bind our heart and thought to something foreign in lustful manner. Always, at every moment, be with God, especially when you bring Him your prayer: at that particular time be faithful and unchanging to Him. If you change, you will fall away from life, and will throw yourself into sorrow and distress.

Do not hasten to food and drink, but hasten to God’s work, and when you accomplish God’s work, think not of food and drink. Remember firmly before whom you stand, with whom you speak, whom you praise; be wholly in God, belong wholly to Him alone, pray with all your heart, sing with all your heart, serve your neighbors as you would yourself, warmly, with all your heart, not wavering in heart and mind. Lord, help me: without You I cannot “do anything” (Jn 15:5).

A clean heart, and the whole person is clean; an unclean heart, and the whole person is unclean: “for out of the heart come evil thoughts, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander…” (Mt 15:19). But all the saints, through fasting, vigil, prayer, meditation on God, reading God’s word, martyrdom, labors and sweat, acquired a pure heart, and the Holy Spirit dwelt in them, cleansed them from every impurity and sanctified them with eternal sanctification. Strive yourself above all for the cleansing of the heart. “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps 50:12).

Do not value God’s gifts by the price of silver and gold. Freely you have received, freely be prepared to give. Leave the recompense for your labors to the will of those who receive the mystery, and for those who have offered or will offer the smallest payment for your spiritual labor, work with the same willingness with which you work for those who offer substantial payment. During God’s work, do not think of silver, do not grieve the Holy Spirit, and do not sell God’s gifts, so that your silver may not perish with you. Alas, many actually do one thing—some sell and others buy, or think they buy with silver the gifts of the Holy Spirit, like Simon the sorcerer.

Food and drink must be used only to strengthen your strength, not for indulgence, and do not eat when nature does not require it. Many of us (and I first), if we do not repent and reform, will be condemned because we ate and drank at improper times and thus, having reason, lived like unreasoning beasts and darkened our foolish hearts. You amused yourselves with food and drink and often ate and drank when you should not have: “Woe to you who are full now, for you will hunger” (Lk 6:25). “You have enjoyed yourselves on earth and lived in luxury; you have fattened your hearts for a day of slaughter” (Jac 5:5).

Pay the closest and most active attention to this daily action of yours, to the taking of food and drink, for from food and drink, from their quality and quantity, your spiritual, social, and family activities depend greatly. “Be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness” (Lk 21:34), and tea and coffee also belong to drunkenness if used inopportunely and in excess. O, woe to us who are satisfied now and often look with disdain upon God’s gifts!

The devil acts through our flesh and generally through materiality to our harm. So through wine, tea, coffee, through delicacies, generally through money, clothing, and so forth, he kindles our passions. Therefore we must guard ourselves strictly against drinking much wine, tea, or coffee, or eating delicacies, especially without other substantial, strong, and wholesome food. These delicacies must be eaten only after everything else, in very moderate amounts.

“Satan has asked to sift you like wheat” (Lk 22:31). This is who so powerfully scatters our thoughts in the temple during divine worship, in the home during prayer; this is who draws away our thoughts from God, from our soul and from human souls, from heaven and eternity; this is who occupies us with trivial earthly things or earthly vanity, earthly delusion: with food, drink, clothing, dwellings, and so forth and so on. We must pray for one another, that our faith may not fail, as the Savior prayed for Peter.

If you eat abundantly, you become a carnal person, without spirit, or flesh without soul; but if you fast, you draw the Holy Spirit to yourself and become spiritual. Take cotton that has not been moistened with water—it is light and, in small quantities, is borne in the air; but moisten it with water, and it becomes heavy and at once falls to the floor. It is so with the soul. O, how one must guard the soul through fasting!

Does involuntary, outward prayer bring benefit? No; it is contrary to God. The same should be understood concerning learning. Involuntary, merely literal learning brings no benefit. Just as one who prays involuntarily only runs through the words, yet often does not understand their power or feel them, and does not enlighten, warm, or quicken his heart with them, so too with a reluctant student. One must accustom oneself to learn willingly; one must teach to meditate on what is being said.

What name do you bear in faith? Christian. What does it mean? It means that I am a member of the great body of Christ, which is called the Church of Christ, that I am a servant and follower of Christ. What does the name of Christian obligate you to? To this: that I should always have Christ in my thoughts and heart, should always have His spirit in all my life, imitating His life, fulfilling His holy commandments, and “set my mind on the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:2,1), despising the things below.

What is holiness? Freedom from every sin and fullness of every virtue. This freedom from sin and virtuous living is attained only by few zealous ones, and not all at once, but gradually, through prolonged many sorrows, illnesses, and labors, fasting, vigil, prayer, and even then not by their own power, but by the grace of Christ. Only the Lady, the Mother of God, from her earliest youth, from the very womb of her mother, was sanctified, and then in the Holy of Holies the Lord sanctified her with perfect sanctification through her unceasing prayer, reading God’s word and meditation upon it, through the guidance of the heavenly, pure, bodiless Powers, especially through His own inner illumination. Holiness corresponds in nature to the light of the sun and the whiteness of snow, while sin corresponds to darkness alien to light, and to filth or rust.

Looking at an icon of the Mother of God with the Pre-eternal Infant, marvel at how truly the Godhead united with humanity, glorify the goodness and almightiness of God, and, knowing your human dignity, live worthily of the high calling to which you are called in Christ—that is, the calling of child of God and heir of eternal blessedness.

Part Two §895-934

Why does the Lord give man a continuation of days on earth? So that man may have time to repent and cleanse himself from sins and passions, and so that truth and love may fully penetrate the heart through the training of the senses regarding good and evil.

What are human souls? They are one and the same soul or one and the same breath of God, which God breathed into Adam, which from Adam continues to spread to all the human race. All people therefore are, so to speak, one person or one great tree of humanity. Hence the commandment, most natural and based upon the unity of our nature: “You shall love the Lord your God” (your first image, your Father) “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all” your mind “, and with all your strength, and your neighbor” (for who is closer to me than one like me, my blood-brother), “as yourself” (Mk 12:30-31; compare Mt 22:37,39 and Lk 10:27). Natural necessity to fulfill these two commandments.

To every person who comes to you, especially with a spiritual purpose, receive him with kindness and a cheerful countenance, even if he be a poor man or poor woman, and inwardly humble yourself before everyone, considering yourself lower than him, for you have been appointed by Christ Himself to be a servant of all, and all are members of His, though, like you, they bear upon themselves the wounds of transgressions.

There should be no doubt in the truth of the Gospel and Church readings. All that is in the Gospel and in the Church is the breath of the Spirit of truth, “silver refined and tested on earth, purified seven times” (Ps 11:7), life, peace, and spiritual sweetness. Woe to the doubter: the spirit of falsehood will darken, oppress, and cast him into despair and sorrow. Experience.

To the Lord, as the most loving Father, it is pleasing when we sincerely pray for people—His children—and as parents, at the request of their good and well-behaved children, show mercy to the disobedient, capricious, and ill-behaved ones, so the Heavenly Father, by the prayer of “those who are His own” (2Tim 2:19) or by the prayer of His priests, clothed with grace, on behalf of the people, shows mercy even to the unworthy, as He showed mercy to and continually had compassion on the disobedient and murmuring Jewish people in the wilderness for the prayers of Moses. But what burning prayer that was!

To the glory of the most holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lady, the Mother of God. I felt countless times in my heart that after communion in the Holy Mysteries, or after fervent home prayer, usual or occasioned by some sin, passion, sorrow, and distress, the Lord, by the prayers of the Lady, or the Lady Herself, by the Lord’s goodness, gave me, so to speak, a new nature of the spirit, pure, good, majestic, bright, wise, gracious, in place of the impure, despondent and feeble, faint-hearted, dark, dull, and evil one. I changed many times by a wonderful, great change, to my own amazement and often to the amazement of others. Glory to Your power, O Lord! Glory to Your goodness, O Lord! Glory to Your mercies, O Lord, which You show upon me, a sinner!

Our life is love—yes, love. And where love is, there is God, and where God is, there is all good. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33). Therefore, with joy nourish and delight everyone, with joy please everyone, and in all things hope in the Heavenly Father, Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Bring as a sacrifice to the love of your neighbor what is dear to you. Bring your Isaac, your passionate heart, as a sacrifice to God, slay it by your will, crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. You received everything from God, be ready to give everything to God, so that, having been faithful in small things to your Lord, you may be set over many. “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much” (Mt 25:23). Count all passions a dream, as I have learned countless times. Amen.

O, how wise a Christian must be in life! He should be like the many-eyed Cherub—entirely eye, entirely mind and unceasing reflection, except in those cases where unreasoning faith is required.

Christian! Remember and always bear in your thoughts and heart the great words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, who art in heaven” (remember: who is our Father? God is our Father, our Love; who are we? we are His children, and brothers to one another; in what love should the children of such a Father live together? if you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham (Jn 8:39); what works then should we do?). “Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, Give us this day our daily bread” (our bread—common to all—not our own; self-love must be cast out from the hearts of God’s children: we are one), “and forgive us our debts” (you wish and desire that God forgive you your sins; count it customary to forgive sins to those who sin against you, knowing that love is long-suffering and merciful); “and lead us not into temptation” (and you yourself do not fall into temptation; “the Lord will not let your foot slip; He who watches over you will not slumber…the Lord is your keeper at your right hand” (Ps 120:3,5)), “but deliver us from the evil one” (do not yourself willingly surrender to him, and the Lord will not give you over to him). For Yours is the kingdom (acknowledge the one King, God, and serve Him alone) and the power (trust in His almighty power) and the glory (zealously strive for His glory with all your strength and throughout your life) forever (He is the eternal King, and the kingdom of Satan will soon pass away, as usurping and false). Amen. Truly it is all this. Remember this prayer above all else, and read it often in your mind and meditate on it: what every word, expression, and petition in it means.

Brethren and sisters! You have been born again (after your first birth from parents) by water and the Spirit; you have become children of God—tell me, do you live worthily of such a high calling? Do you live as befits the children of God? Is it evident from your deeds that your “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20)? Is it evident that you await your Lord to come again from heaven, as He promised us this in His holy word? Do you despise earthly things, do you strive with all your heart toward heavenly things? Do you not love this adulterous and sinful world? “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. “Love of this world is enmity against God”. “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jn 2:15-16, Jac 4:4)—comes not from the Father but from the world. This world crucified and still crucifies the Son of God. Brethren and sisters! Be watchful of yourselves; do you live according to the Gospel? Is it not contrary to it? Read often the first chapters of the Gospel of Matthew.

Save us, O Mother, Your people! Save us, our blood-relatives! Save us, Mother of Life and Mother of us all, though we are unworthy to call You our Mother! Cleanse us, sanctify us, strengthen us, and save us through Your prayers!

Why do I have possessions? So that I and my family and my relatives may exist by them, and so that I may give to the poor—not so that I may hoard them. Give generously, so that God may give generously to you according to your giving. Besides, all possessions or means of life are God’s, not ours, and God is the Master of life: He cares for the maintenance of our life through us ourselves or through others, or directly. We commit ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ God (from the Litany). We say: we need to live, and our life is God; therefore, God provides and will provide all means of life.

In many secular journals and newspapers, which have multiplied to an extreme degree, there breathes an earthly, often anti-Christian spirit, whereas a Christian (in hope) is a citizen not only of the earth but also of heaven and should think about heavenly things as well. Ancient pagan literature was often, it seems, better and purer (Cicero), more lofty in its principle and motivation than some literature of Christian peoples. The Hypostatic Word of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, is continually and heavily offended by Christian peoples, who should in particular be rational beings—that is, God-like creatures—in spoken and written word, which is wasted in multitude and even to the scandal of Christians, drawn away by secular literature from reading God’s word and the writings of the holy fathers. In the multiplication of flattering words, the editors and publishers of journals and newspapers ensnare and seduce the rational flock of Christ. O, Word of God! What answer shall we give on Your Fearful Judgment!

Where now is the reading in homes of the God-inspired Psalter, which inspires such great faith in God, such firm hope in God in adversities, in illnesses, in poverty and sorrows, and such burning love for God? Where is the reading of the God-inspired psalms, which was the beloved reading of our ancestors, not only simple folk but boyars and even princes themselves? It is gone: therefore many lack faith, Christian hope, and love for God and neighbor, and instead have unbelief, despair, hatred. There is no burning prayer, no purity of morals, no spirit of contrition for sins and tenderness, no righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The majority of Christians are permeated with the spirit of the world, the spirit of journals, newspapers, and generally of secular writers, who themselves are permeated in turn with a pagan, not Christian, spirit of denying the God-inspiration of Sacred Scripture and of exalting themselves, their proud and inflated reason, the spirit of worldly vanity.

All that the Church puts into our lips and ears is truth, the breathing or teaching of the Holy Spirit. Reverence every thought, every word of the Church. Remember that the realm of thought and word belongs to God, as does the entire world, visible and invisible. You have nothing of your own, not even a thought or a word. All is our Father’s, all is God’s. Join yourself to the common order, as gold merges into known forms, or as nature is composed into one harmonious whole. Do not live in selfish, separate isolation.

The breaking of seas and rivers is an image of the release of our soul from the body. Waters, freed from ice, stand face to face with the air, which begins to move them, and with the sun, which begins to bathe in their waters: so pure souls, freed from the body, are face to face with Christ, are cooled by Him and illuminated by Him. Waters, while the icy covering lies upon them, are, as it were, in a dungeon, in bonds, and have no direct communication with the air and with sunlight: so also our souls, while they live in the bodily covering, have no direct communication with God and the saints, but only through the mediation of their covering, in part; but when the bodily covering falls away, then we shall see our Lord face to face, as the waters, when freed from ice, are directly turned toward the sun and enter into direct contact with the air.

Our heart is simple, singular, and therefore cannot serve two lords: “God and mammon” (Mt 6:24), that is, wealth; this means one cannot truly serve the Lord and at the same time have attachment to earthly things, for all of this relates to mammon. And it is unworthy of man to serve wealth, for it is earth and dust. All earthly things, if we attach ourselves to them in heart, make it coarse, earthly, and turn us away from God, from the Mother of God, and all the saints, from everything spiritual, heavenly, and eternal, and attach us to what is earthly, corruptible, and temporal, and also turn us away from love of neighbor. To complete all that has been said, one must also say that the spirit of attachment to the earthly, of care and concern for the earthly, is the spirit of the devil, and the devil himself dwells in a man through his attachment to the earthly; he often enters our heart as a brazen conqueror through an instant attachment to the earthly, not at once rejected, darkening, suppressing, killing our spirit, and making it incapable of any work of God, infecting it with pride, blasphemy, murmuring, contempt of holiness and neighbor, resistance, despair, despondency, malice.

For our sake the Lord was incarnate, suffered, was crucified and died and rose again. For our sake He also adorned His most pure Mother, the Virgin Mary, with all virtues and supplied her with all divine powers, so that She, most compassionate and all-perfect, should be everything for us after Him. Therefore let not the grace of God be vain for us, with which our Lady is filled. Let us all approach with boldness and hope the wonderful and all-mighty and most pure protection of the Virgin. If sins trouble us, let us pray to Her that She might cleanse us with the hyssop of Her prayers from every defilement of flesh and spirit.

Blasphemy and contempt for spiritual words come from what? From the pride of our heart, from the arrogance of our reason.

You constantly notice that God tolerates no slight momentary impurity in you, and as soon as you allow some unclean thought to enter your heart, peace abandons you and God Himself abandons you, and you become a dwelling place of the devil, if you do not immediately reject the sin. Therefore, concerning every sinful thought, and all the more concerning sinful word and deed, you must say: this is the devil; and concerning every holy and good thought, as well as word and deed, we must say that this is God or this is from God. Imagine now what a brilliantly adorned, pure and unshakeable palace the all-mighty God is in the most holy soul and most pure body of the Mother of God, into the womb of whom God the Word descended and dwelt in Her with His divinity, soul, and most pure body? Imagine what an eternal, infinite, unchangeable holiness She is! Imagine what reverence and glorification She is worthy of! Imagine who we are—“reeds” tossed about by “the devil’s wind” (Mt 11:7); the devil has breathed his blasphemy into our heart, and at once we are tossed about by his blasphemy, troubled, despondent, when we ought to despise all his blasphemy or pay it no attention, as dreams.

As in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are inseparable, so in prayer and in our life thought, word, and deed must be equally inseparable. Do you ask something of God? Believe that it will happen, it will be done according to your petition as God wills; do you read God’s word? Believe that all of which it speaks was, is, and will be, or has been done, is being done, and will be done. So believe, so speak, so read, so pray. A great thing is the word. A great thing is the thinking, speaking, and acting soul, the image and likeness of the all-mighty Trinity. Man! Know yourself, who you are, and conduct yourself in accordance with your dignity.

Good Lady! Show and continually show Your dominion over me and Your people, those who fear God and are well-behaved—deliver us, through our prayer, from impure, wicked, and blasphemous thoughts, from all sins and passions, and from all the wiles of demons, as a good Mother of God.

To the Lady, Mother of God, to the holy Angels, and to all the saints pray as to the Holy Spirit Himself, or rather as to the Holy Trinity, Which sanctifies them and rests in them: “That they may be one in us” (Jn 17:21). Holy are You, our God, and You dwell in the saints (the exclamation). Amen.

We all live in a kind of delightful spiritual blindness of heart and mind, but the Lord Jesus Christ is our enlightenment. The saints always see us by the grace of God, because they are in God and God is in them; they are “one spirit with the Lord” (1Cor 6:17), and the Lord sees all and hears all. Therefore, when you look in church, for example, at the faces of God’s saints, believe that they see you, all the more your heart.

Whatever passions your enemies may struggle you with, endure without despondency, without bitterness, with gentleness and humility, and do not allow in your heart any movement of impatience, malice, murmuring, or blasphemy.

All creation testifies to the infinite goodness and justice of the Creator; Satan himself and his angels, by their shameful existence and wholly evil schemes against people, prove the measureless goodness and justice of the Creator; for what was Satan and his angels before: what lights, what treasuries of how many blessings did they possess, and what did they lose through their deliberate and willful ingratitude, pride, malice, and envy against the Lord? Did they not fall completely deliberately and intentionally, with the goal of eternally waging war against the Creator and His creatures, rational and worded people? Judging by the malicious actions of Satan in the world, by their multitude and power, we can surmise what a great and mighty spirit Satan was, the former Lucifer? Judging by the multitude of his delusion and deception in people, scattered throughout the whole world (“he deceives the whole world” (Apok 12:9)), one can guess how he was formerly bright and filled with truth! “You were in the garden of God; you were adorned with every precious stone” (Ezek 28:13). Judging by the most wicked fleshly and impure desires he inspires, one can conclude how he was in goodness given to him by the Creator, how desirable and beloved he was! Judging by his cunning and wicked schemes, one can guess how wise he was and how much good he could have brought, how much he could have served his Creator in His providence for the lower spirits and for men. By this evil, enormous colossus, Satan, judge what a great, good, most beautifully adorned, most shining, powerful, and wise creature Satan was before? How many gifts of the Creator’s goodness did he contain within himself, and what has he lost through his evil and deliberate madness! By his malice in men judge how good he was before; by his envy judge of his former well-wishing; by his boundless avarice and stinginess in men judge of his generosity; by his pride judge of the greatness he received from God; by his despair, boredom, and sometimes unbearable anguish in men judge of his former blessedness. For he is now as evil as he was formerly good! He stands forever as a lesson of humility and obedience for all heavenly Angels and for all right-minded men: for however perfect Angels may be, or however wise men are, and however perfect any of them may be in anything, they have all of it from the sole goodness of the Creator, not from themselves, and must thank the Creator for everything and ask Him for everything with undoubted faith in His goodness and almightiness, with hope to receive everything from Him. Evil spirits fell through pride and malice: for all mankind there is a lesson in this—to humble themselves before the Creator, to consider themselves as nothing, and to ascribe everything to the Creator, and to live solely by the Creator and in the fulfillment of His will, and—marvelous are Your works, O Lord!—what the Lucifer of old, for all his wisdom, was neither able nor willing to acquire, the Virgin of mortal and spiritually-immortal lineage acquired for herself; the most holy Virgin Mary acquired for herself unparalleled humility, acquired the highest holiness. “Rejoice, you who are full of grace: the Lord is with You!… The Lord has regarded” “the humility of His maidservant” (Lk 1:28,48). So also all we, as small in ourselves, as having everything from God save sin, should constantly and deeply humble ourselves before the Creator, in all things having recourse to His mercy.

You cannot overcome a single passion or sin without the help of grace—therefore always ask for help from Christ your Savior. He came into the world for this, for this He suffered, died, and rose again, so that in all things He might help us, so that He might save us from sin and from the violence of passions, so that He might cleanse our sins, so that He might give us in the Holy Spirit power to do good works, so that He might enlighten us, strengthen us, and bring us peace. You say: how can one be saved when at every step sin stands and at every moment one sins? The answer is simple: at every step, at every moment, call upon your Savior, remember your Savior, and you shall be saved, and you shall save others as well.

Use My gifts not selfishly, as selfish ones, but as My children, among whom everything should be common, not hesitating to offer others freely the fruits of My labors, the works of My hands, remembering that I give them to you freely, according to My fatherly goodness and mercy of My love for mankind. So it is in a family. When a father or mother or brother brings gifts, the father gives gifts to all his children, or the brother to his brothers, and if the children, brothers, and sisters all live in mutual love, they do not consider themselves satisfied and happy if the father or brother left one of them without gifts and did not give him what he gave others. And why is this? Because in their mutual love they feel themselves one body, because all are as it were one, one person. So act, each of you. And I know how to reward you for love that is so pleasing to Me. If I bestow gifts upon those not even fulfilling My commandments (“a certain rich man’s land produced an abundant harvest” (Lk 12:16)), will I not all the more bestow gifts upon My true children, for whom I have indeed ordained all My bounties? Yes, I will bestow gifts. “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy” (Rom 9:15; Ex 33:19).

However often you fall, rise up and you shall be saved. You are a sinner, you fall constantly; learn to rise up; take care to acquire this wisdom. This wisdom consists in this: memorize the psalm Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your great mercy, which was given to King and Prophet David by the Holy Spirit, and read it with sincere faith and hope, with a contrite and humble heart; after your sincere repentance, expressed in the words of King David, forgiveness of sins will immediately shine forth upon you from the Lord, and you will feel peace in your soul’s powers. The main thing in life is to strive for mutual love and to judge no one. Each will give account to God for himself, and you look to yourself. Guard yourself from malice.

Orthodox Christians are, so to speak, a family, children of Jesus Christ, and in a good family the mother is always held in high honor (the Mother of God), just as elder brothers are respected and honored by the younger, and the younger ones imitate the first. Lutherans and Anglicans! Why do you not have this? Why is the Mother of God not accorded among you the due reverence, solemn honor, and worship? Why are the holy Angels and holy men of God not accorded solemn respect and bows? Why do you not wish to imitate them? Or do you honor God alone, worship Him alone? But you must remember that the Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy Angels, and the holy, pure men of God are the living images of God, friends of God, as Abraham is called the friend of God. How can one not bow to the living images of God, the children and friends of God?

The world is a house. The builder and master of this house, the Creator and Father of the Christians living in it, is God. The Mother in this house is the most holy Mother of God. Always walk in the presence of your Father in love and obedience to Him; likewise in the presence of our common Mother, the most holy Mother of God—in holy love, reverence, and obedience to Her. In your spiritual and physical needs, in sorrows, afflictions, and illnesses, turn to Her with faith, hope, and love. Be holy, as holy is the Lord God, your Creator and Father, as holy is the Lady, the Mother of God and after the Savior our Mother. “Woman, here is your son;… here is your mother” (Jn 19:26-27). So that we might not doubt about calling the exalted Mother of the Most High God, the most holy, most pure, most blessed, glorious Lady our Mother, the Eternal, Divine Son of Hers, the Lord Jesus Christ, resolved our doubt, directly permitting us, or those zealous for holiness, to call Her our Mother: “here is your mother”. For in the person of St John the Divine this was said to us, Christians. Yes, She is indeed our most tender, providence-full, all-holy, and directing Mother toward holiness us, Her children.

You see very clearly that it is extraordinarily difficult for you—and without the grace of God and fervent prayer and abstinence it is impossible for you to change for the better; you feel within yourself the action of many passions: pride, malice, envy, greed, avarice, despondency, sloth, unchastity, impatience, disobedience, and you remain with them and are often bound by them; and yet the patient Lord endures you, waiting for your turning and correction, and bestows upon you all the gifts of His goodness. Be therefore forbearing, patient, and loving also to the passionate people living with you, overcoming all evil with good, and above all, pray to God for them, that He might correct them and turn their hearts to Himself, the Source of holiness. Do not help the devil in the spread of his kingdom. Sanctify by your deeds the name of your Heavenly Father, assist Him in the spread of His Kingdom on earth: “We are God’s co-workers” (1Cor 3:9); strive for the fulfillment of His will on earth as it is in heaven, forgive your debtors with joy, as a good son rejoices to have the opportunity to fulfill the will of his beloved father.

How pleasant and joyful it is to you when you find some lost, necessary, and valuable thing! You are ready to jump for joy. Imagine, then, how pleasing it is to the Heavenly Father to see His lost child—the sinful man—found, to see His perishing and revived sheep, to see His lost and found drachma—that is, this living image of God—man! It is impossible to describe this joy. The joy of the Heavenly Father over His lost and found prodigal son is so great that it moves all the loving and well-wishing heaven to rejoice: “There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Lk 15:7,10). Perishing brothers and sisters! Return from the path of destruction to your Heavenly Father. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:2).

Every man should know and remember the simplicity of his soul, which is God’s breath: God is simple, and the soul is simple. And since the soul is simple, it cannot possibly love two opposite things—God and something worldly, man and something material, pleasing to our fleshly nature. To love God with all your heart, you must necessarily count all earthly things as rubbish and not be seduced by anything; to love your neighbor as yourself, you must disdain money, not be seduced by delicacies, fine clothes, distinctions, ranks, praise, or what people think. Preserve the simplicity of the soul especially during public and home prayer, during reading God’s word and the writings of the holy fathers, and generally in any important matter. “No one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24).

A Christian should love God and His image, his neighbor, so hotly and firmly that he can always say: What “will separate us from the love of God” and of our neighbor? “Hardship, distress,… or nakedness, or danger, or the sword” (Rom 8:35), or money, or the sweetness of food and drink, or a fine dwelling, or concern for clothes, or various worldly pleasures? But all these earthly things I count as rubbish, worldly pleasures as dreams. The faults of neighbors I ascribe to corruption of nature, to the action or schemes of evil spirits, to insufficient or bad upbringing, to unfavorable circumstances of life, to the traits of parents and educators… Knowing my own sinfulness, my passions, my malice, greed, impurity, my weakness, I cannot hate people like me, having the same weaknesses and vices: for I must love my neighbor as myself, and I love myself, though I know countless sins about myself; finally I must love because we are one body.

Listen: for cleansing your heart from sins you will receive an infinite reward—you will see God, your all-good Creator, your Provider. The struggle to cleanse the heart is difficult, because it is joined with great privations and sorrows; but the reward is great. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8).

They say: God is merciful; He will have mercy on us. Certainly, God has infinite mercy. But if God is infinitely merciful to us and generous, why then do we willfully offend Him with our lawlessness? The more we are blessed by Him, the more we should love Him, be grateful to Him, and obey His holy commandments or orders. Where then is this love, this gratitude, this obedience?

A wicked and proud man is ready to see in others only pride and malice and is glad if others speak ill of someone from his acquaintance, especially those living happily and richly but not close to him spiritually, and the worse they speak, the more he rejoices that others are bad and he is perfection compared to them, and is ready to see only evil in them and compare them to demons. O, malice! O, pride! O, absence of love! No, seek and find something good even in an evil man and rejoice in this good and gladly speak of his good qualities. There is no person in whom there is not some good; the evil in him cover with love and pray to God for him, that God would make the wicked good through His goodness (prayer of the priest on the Liturgy of Basil the Great). Do not yourself become an evil abyss.

Christian! Your Faith’s Chief, Christ, was crucified and left you a cross. How, then, do you live in luxury, in ease, in comfort, in idleness? He endured dishonor and commanded you not to be ashamed, for His sake, of dishonor, and you seek honor. Look often upon the Crucified One and learn your duties. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24).

And not a hair of your head will perish (Lk 21:18), that is, not even a holy thought of your mind will perish, not only for God but also for men. For we see that the holy thoughts and feelings of God’s saints have been preserved for us intact, having been written down on parchment.

Part Two §935-974

In whom is the cause of all visible and invisible things? In God. And God is invisible. Reverence therefore the invisible God, strive toward the invisible God. God is an eternal Spirit, most holy, most good, all-knowing, all-righteous, almighty, omnipresent, unchangeable, self-sufficient, and all-blessed. And you are God’s image; be therefore spiritual, despising the flesh—the temporary house; be holy, good, knowledgeable, righteous, active and courageous, unchanging in good, and content with all things.

Whoever built a house should naturally live in it. We are the houses of our Creator; He created us for Himself: for He made all things for Himself; and He ought to live in us, not the devil, that murderer, thief, robber, deceiver. Lord! Come and dwell in us (prayer to the Holy Spirit). “We will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (Jn 14:23). “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1Cor 3:16).

Reverence every word, every thought of God’s word, the writings of the holy fathers, and among them the various prayers and hymns which we hear in church or which we say at home, for all of this is the breath and words of the Holy Spirit: this is, so to speak, the Holy Spirit Himself interceding for us and through “us groaning with groans that cannot be expressed” (Rom 8:26).

The Great Litany, pronounced daily in church, is a wise litany, a litany of love; in it Christians, both the living and the saints, are presented as one great member of the body of Jesus Christ. Beautifully it concludes with the last exclamation: Having remembered the most holy, most pure, most blessed, glorious Lady, our Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints, we commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ God. The Fervent and Supplicatory Litanies are also beautiful. We are accustomed to them, but let us imagine that we are hearing them for the first time, let us put ourselves in the place of foreigners.

When praying to God, one should always imagine His infinite greatness, the worship of Him by thousands of thousands and myriads of times myriads of heavenly Angels and saints, as well as His omnipresence and omniscience, His infinite goodness, righteousness, and holiness. When you call in prayer the most holy Mother of God the Mother of God most holy, most pure, most immaculate, most good, then imagine that her very being is holiness eternal, unshakeable, unchangeable, inconceivable, and difficult to behold even for the eyes of angels (Akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God). So also think of all Angels and saints—that their being is holiness and goodness by the grace of Jesus Christ. Always consider it a great happiness to converse in prayer with the Lord or with the most pure Lady Mother of God, or with Angels, or with holy men, and with joy and with the tremor of reverence always pray to Them, remembering with whom you are speaking, you unclean and worthless worm.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, not ours. We ourselves would like to reign with our passions, that is, to insist on our own: to rely on our own strength rather than on Yours, to seek our own glory rather than Yours; but this desire in us is demonic. We must submit all to Your will, seek in all works Your power, and do all for Your glory. “Do everything for the glory of God” (1Cor 10:31).

With the cross, just as with the sign of the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, as living and life-giving, is always with us and always acts with various powers for our salvation, through faith in Him, our God and Savior. Glory for this to our Lord, who is always with us! “Behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Amen” (Mt 28:20).

Partakers of the Divine Mysteries! Know that you are joined most sincerely to the Lord if you receive Communion worthily. What boldness you have toward the Lord and Mother of God! What purity you must have! What gentleness, humility, and freedom from malice! What dispassion toward the earthly! What burning desire for heavenly, pure, eternal pleasures!

When making the sign of the cross, believe and constantly remember that your sins were nailed to the cross. When you fall into sin, at once condemn yourself sincerely and make the sign of the cross upon yourself, saying: Lord! Who nailed our sins to the cross, nail to Your cross this my present sin as well and “have mercy upon me according to Your great mercy” (Ps 50:3)—and your sin will be cleansed. Amen.

All manner of sins and passions are ready to burst into the soul and strain to burst into it every minute. But manfully and unwaveringly fight against them to your last breath, counting them as dreams of imagination, as dreams of evil spirits.

Be so certain of the Lord’s nearness to you that you feel, when praying to God, that you touch Him not only with your mind and heart, but also with your mouth and tongue. “The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart” (Rom 10:8)—that is, God.

Let the following conviction always be present to your heart: we are all men one (brothers), and for all of us all is God, the all-good, all-mighty, inexhaustible Source; but in all also can and does act the devil, the enemy of mankind, whose evil, wrought in men, must be overcome with good, patience, gentleness, forbearance.

Do not confuse man—this image of God—with the evil that is in him, for evil is only an accidental misfortune of his, a sickness, a demonic dream, but his essence—the image of God—still remains in him.

If you sin in anything before God (and we sin greatly every day), at once speak in your heart with faith in the Lord, who listens to your heart’s cry, with a humble awareness and feeling of your sins, the psalm Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your great mercy, and read the whole psalm heartfully; if it did not work the first time, try again, only read it even more heartfully, even more feelingly, and then forgiveness and peace will at once shine forth upon you from the Lord to your soul. Always repent thus: this is a sure and tried means against sins. But if you do not obtain relief, blame yourself; it means you were praying without contrition, without humility of heart, without a firm desire to receive forgiveness of sins from God; it means the sin wounded you but weakly.

Did I sin? The Lord is my purification; was I downcast and gloomy after sin, from the insults of the enemy? The Lord is the destruction of my despondency and the quickening of my boldness. All is the Lord for me. O, truly Existing Lord, glory to You! (Existing—that is, the One Who Is.)

The Holy Spirit, like air, fills all things and penetrates all: being everywhere and filling all things. Whoever prays zealously draws the Holy Spirit into himself and prays through the Holy Spirit.

“Where two or three gather in My name, there I am with them” (Mt 18:20). Why especially to two or three is God’s co-presence promised? Because there, where two or three have gathered in the name of Christ, there is the Church, unity of faith and love, there is mutual love. “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13:35).

The soul of truth—that is, everything thinkable is true. All true thoughts are the breath of the Holy Spirit. Truth is so simple, easy, accessible, and life-giving for man as thought, as breath.

Believe and hope that just as it is easy for you to breathe air and live by it, or to eat and drink, so it is even easier for your faith to receive all spiritual gifts from the Lord. Prayer is the breathing of the soul; prayer is spiritual food and drink.

You, shepherd of people, the Lord gave to see how fierce the spiritual wolf is, so that you yourself would also strive with all your might to be saved from his claws and jaws and would save the flock entrusted to you by God. From now on therefore teach them with particular force, in the manner Christ taught, and show them how this spiritual wolf continually catches them and through what he catches them—how he flatters our sensuality so that we would more easily and willingly sin—how many do not understand his flattery and willingly serve him, for instance, in gluttony, excessive eating, drunkenness, unchastity and adultery, in avarice, pride, vainglory, malice, envy, in blasphemy, sloth, foul speech, idle speech, laughter, passion for fine dress, dancing, passion for the theater, for cards, and so forth.

We fuss about fine, clean bodily clothing, strive to dress with taste and elegance, but who thinks about the incorruptible garment which is entirely defiled by sins and in which all must appear before the Judge-God? Who washes it with tears of repentance, with deeds of mercy, adorns it with fasting, prayer, vigil, and meditation on God?

“We rejoiced throughout all our days and were glad for the days in which…we experienced adversity” (Ps 89:14-15). The merciful Lord, after punishing us, then has mercy on us with temporal and eternal mercy. Many a sick man suffers long with illness as if from an evil tyrant, but in this illness the soul is purified as gold, and that man receives the freedom of God’s children and is deemed worthy of eternal rest and blessedness.

Without testing, ordinary iron seems like steel, and brass and tin like silver, or mixed silver like pure silver, and bronze like gold, or a mixture of gold with earth like pure gold, and common glass like diamond; but testing shows their true worth. So it is with people. To outward appearance many seem meek and humble, merciful, good, simple, chaste, believing, and so forth; but testing often shows that they are evil, proud, hard-hearted, impure, miserly, greedy, envious, vindictive, lazy, and so forth. Testings come through deprivations and losses, sorrows, illnesses, dishonor, and he who endures testing is reliable for the Kingdom of God, and he who does not endure it is unreliable, because there remains in him a large mixture of evil.

Live (and you live) as members of one body, as children of God, in love and harmony, in peace and quiet, respecting one another, forbearing one another, as the Lord forbears us. Do not be proud, do not be envious, do not be at war, bridle fleshly desires, live chastely, abstain from every excess, be not lazy in prayer, always begin daily activities with a brief prayer, and begin and end the day with fervent prayer to God, the Queen of Heaven, and your guardian Angel; pray for all as for yourself, wish good to all as to yourself, and do not wish evil to anyone or do evil to anyone.

When you see people falling into various sins against you, against the Lord, against their neighbors, and against themselves—do not be malicious toward them, for there is already much malice in the world without you; but pity them from your soul and forgive them when they injure you, saying to yourself: “Lord, ‘forgive them’, for sin confuses them; they ‘know not what they do’” (Lk 23:34).

All earthly, material things, when the heart is attached to them, are turmoil, sorrow, distress, death for our soul; and in themselves they are corruption and dust and smoke—even our body itself. One thing alone is needful for our soul—this is righteousness, holiness, truth, love, mercy, gentleness, freedom from malice, peace, spiritual freedom or the grace of God in the heart. These treasures are life-giving to our whole being, eternal. Let us strive with all our strength to obtain them and, having obtained them, keep them in ourselves, multiply and strengthen them, for because of our sinfulness all that is good quickly evaporates, as it were.

Lord! Give me always a gentle heart, a clear, straight, gentle gaze. Be it so! Glory to You, Lord, for the change wrought in me by Your right hand! I thank You, that You have taken away from me the burning thorns of my passions and my distress, my shame, and my weakness, and have granted me peace, quiet, freedom, strength, boldness. Strengthen what You have wrought in me. Glory to the power of faith, the power of prayer: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mk 11:24). I thank You, Lord, “that You raise me from the dead so many times” (2Cor 1:9), and You destroy the mortal, sinful kingdom within me.

A Christian should set his mind on the things above, where Christ is, and not cleave to the perishable goods of the world: this is the work of pagans. And yet we are passionate for all earthly pleasures and things. We have perverted our life, having departed from the example of the Lord, the Apostles, the martyrs, the ascetics, those indifferent to riches, and all the saints; they were not of this world, but we are of this world; we live some kind of idiosyncratic, not Christian, life. Envy, pride, judging others, enmity, hatred, malice, injustice, fleshly impurity are not expelled from our hearts, but firmly and broadly make their home in them.

Do not fulfill your own will for even one moment, but God’s will, which is love for all—and for enemies—and is our holiness. Our own will is sin manifold: self-love (not love of God), malice, hatred, pride, envy, greed, lust, gluttony, drunkenness, theft, avarice, unchastity, deceit, sloth, hard-heartedness and insensibility to the sufferings of others, gloating over their misfortune, vindictiveness, murmuring, blasphemy, profanity.

Great are these words: Give us, being of one heart and one mouth, to glorify and sing Your most worthy and magnificent Name, Father and Son and Holy Spirit (the exclamation from the Liturgy). O, if only it were always so and hearts were not divided, not to speak of men, but even with ourselves!

If I despise or hate someone, it means I lawlessly exalt myself and lawlessly love—that is, in the flesh. Our heart constantly flatters us, secretly exalting us while abasing our neighbors. But we must continually behold our countless sins so as to condemn ourselves as a spiritual corpse. Then we will not have time to notice others’ faults and condemn them for them or despise them; then we will respect them, for we will find that they are incomparably better than us in much.

Truly the temple is an earthly heaven, for where is God’s throne, where the awesome Mysteries are performed, where Angels serve with men, where there is unceasing glorification of the Almighty, there truly is heaven and heaven of heavens. Therefore let us enter into God’s temple, especially into the Holy of Holies, with the fear of God, with a pure heart, having set aside passions and all worldly cares, and let us stand in it with faith, reverence, understanding, attentiveness, with love and peace in our heart; let us go out renewed, as it were heavenly; let us live in the holiness befitting heaven, not bound by worldly desires and pleasures.

Fasting is a good teacher: (1) it quickly makes it clear to every faster that every person needs very little food and drink, and that generally we are greedy and eat and drink far more than necessary—more than our nature requires; (2) fasting well reveals or exposes all weaknesses of our soul, all its frailties, shortcomings, sins, and passions, just as purifying muddy, stagnant water shows what creatures live in it or what quality of refuse is in it; (3) it shows us all the necessity to have recourse with all our heart to God and seek from Him mercy, help, salvation; (4) fasting shows us all the cunning, deceit, all the malice of the bodiless spirits whom we unknowingly served before; and their deceits, now illuminated by the light of God’s grace, are clearly exposed, and which now wickedly pursue us for our abandonment of their ways.

All bodies of nature tend toward the center of the earth, and all human souls naturally strive toward their spiritual center or archetype—God: only sin has perverted and perverts this natural direction. Fire and smoke tend toward their kindred elements.

Your soul seeks true life, food suited to itself, food for the mind—truth, for the heart—rest and blessedness, for the will—right direction or lawfulness. Go to church: it possesses all of this abundantly. It is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1Tim 3:15), because it contains God’s word, which shows the beginning of all things, the beginning of the human race, the creation of man in the image and likeness of God, his fall, his restoration through the Savior of mankind, the means of salvation, faith, hope, and love. It provides us with rest and blessedness through its divine worship and especially its mysteries; it cries out: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28); it teaches us the true path which our will must steadfastly follow and which will lead us to eternal life: this is the path of God’s commandments.

The Lord has given me the greatest, inalienable wealth—His image and likeness, has given me Himself, as it is said: “You have granted a possession to those who fear You, Lord!” (troparion at Vespers, (Ps 60:6)) What earthly wealth do I need after this? What honor? There is no honor greater than to be a Christian and a member of Christ’s body, a child of God in Christ. No one is richer than the man who bears Christ always in his heart and His grace. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps 72:25-26). Yet we are greedy, we gather, we are stingy, we are proud, we envy. What delusion, what foolishness! Man! Be rich in God: everything comes to you from God.

971. When you see burning candles and lamps in the church, ascend in thought from material fire to the immaterial fire of the Holy Spirit: “our God is a consuming fire” (Hebr 12:29); seeing and smelling the fragrant incense, rise in thought to the spiritual fragrance of the Holy Spirit, “we are the aroma of Christ to God” (2Cor 2:15), and likewise by contrast—to the spiritual stench, which is sin, and strive to be filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit and to drive out the coldness of heart that comes from the devil, from the flesh, and from the world, and be fragrant before God with the fragrance of benefactors: meekness, gentleness, humility, obedience, temperance, chastity, patience and so forth. Flee the stench of passions, malice, envy, pride, disobedience, intemperance, fornication and so forth.

972. The voice of the Church’s readings, songs, prayers and supplications—this is the voice of our souls, poured forth from our awareness and feeling of our spiritual needs and longings; this is the voice of all humanity, aware and feeling of its poverty, its wretchedness, its sinfulness, its need of a Savior, its need to give thanks and to glorify the countless mercies and infinite perfections of God. Wondrous these prayers and songs are; they are the breath of the Holy Spirit!

973. The sign of the cross made by a priest or bishop is the expression of God’s blessing or benevolence toward a person in Christ and for Christ’s sake. What a joyful, significant, precious rite! Blessed are all who receive this blessing with faith! How attentive priests must be when bestowing blessings on the faithful! “Place My name upon the sons of Israel: and I, the Lord, will bless them” (Num 6:27).

974. Do we recite the Trisagion in vain several times daily, and the Lord’s Prayer, and other morning and evening prayers? Are we not cleansed through them of our sins and defilements? Are we not delivered from temptations, troubles and afflictions? Does the sign of the cross remain ineffectual? Oh no: it acts continually and beneficently upon us and upon those on whom, in faith, we make it, especially the priestly blessing. Therefore let us continually glorify the mercy and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hears us and saves us wretches by His mercy, for His holy name’s sake.

Part Two §975-1014

975. All the words of Church prayers and praises are great words; but these words: for You are the resurrection and the life and the rest and so forth, which serve as such great consolation to our mortal race and which constitute the hope of Christians, are especially great. Therefore one must pronounce them with especial force, with especial emphasis.

976. O holy faith! With what words, what songs shall I glorify thee for the countless blessings thou have bestowed upon my soul and body, for all the power thou have wrought and work in me, for the blessing of peace and the taking away of anguish, for the blessing of freedom and the removal of bitter narrowness, for the blessing of spiritual light and the driving out of the darkness of passions, for the blessing of boldness and the taking away of faintheartedness and fear, for the blessing of spiritual dominion and spiritual greatness and the removal of enslavement to sin and lowness of spirit, for the blessing of holiness and the taking away of sinful impurity, for the removal of malice, envy, willfulness and stubbornness, greed, fornication and every spiritual corruption? Glory be to You, O God, my Benefactor, for ever and ever! Be known, O Lord, in Your faith, by all Your people and by all the nations of the earth, that all may glorify You with one mouth and one heart from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof. So be it, so be it!

977. Many practicing physicians who receive much money from the sick must for the sake of their souls give generous alms, if they believe that they have an immortal soul; wealthy priests who receive generous compensation for their prayer labors must likewise give generous alms, lest they be condemned together with Judas the traitor who sold the Lord of glory for coins; merchants who receive large profits must absolutely exercise themselves in almsgiving and in adorning and furnishing the temples of God; officials who receive large salaries must not consider their generous compensation for their modest labors as exclusively their own possession and must also remember their poor brethren, so that they receive a reward from the Lord and purify their souls. All must lay up the oil of mercy and good works, lest they appear naked before the Judge on the day of the awesome trial, lest they appear exposed on that universal platform of shame.

978. I give thanks to my most holy, most good and all-wise mother—the Church of God, who guides me salvifically in this temporal life and trains me for citizenship in heaven; I thank her for all the orders of prayers, the Divine Liturgy, mysteries and rites; I thank her for the fasts, which are so beneficial to me both spiritually and physically (for through them I am healthy in spirit and body, at peace, vigilant, light. Without fasting it would be extremely difficult for me, as I have experienced even outside of fasting times); I thank my immaculate mother, the Church of God, who ravishes me with her heavenly service, transports my spirit heavenward to the heavens, illuminates my mind with heavenly truth, shows me the paths of eternal life, rescues me from the violence and dishonor of the passions, makes my life blessed.

979. The entire world, heaven and earth and all that is in them, the sea and all that is in it, is an outpouring of the infinite goodness of God, His wisdom and infinite power and might, goodness toward creatures whom He created for joy and blessedness, especially toward mankind. The world is a mirror of God’s goodness, wisdom, wisdom and power. Therefore we must not cleave to the world, but to God. “What have I in heaven, and what do I desire upon the earth? My heart and my flesh have fainted, O God of my heart, and my portion is God forever” (Ps 72:25-26).

980. A Christian must fast in order to clarify the mind and awaken and develop feeling, and move the will toward good action. We obscure and suppress these three faculties of man chiefly through “overeating, drunkenness and the cares of this life” (Lk 21:34), and through this we fall away from the source of life—God—and descend into corruption and vanity, perverting and defiling the image of God within us. Gluttony and lust for pleasure pin us to the earth and, as it were, cut off the wings of the soul. But look at the high flight of all those who fast and practice temperance! They, like eagles, soar in the heavens; they, though of earthly birth, lived with mind and heart in heaven and heard there unspoken words and learned there divine wisdom. And how man degrades himself through gluttony, overeating and drunkenness! He perverts his nature, created in the image of God, and becomes like a dumb beast, even worse than it. Oh, woe to us from our attachments, from our lawless habits! They prevent us from loving God and our neighbor and fulfilling God’s commandments; they root in us criminal fleshly self-love, the end of which is eternal perdition. So the drunkard, for the pleasure of flesh and to stupefy himself, does not spare many rubles, but grudges the poor kopeks; the tobacco smoker throws tens and hundreds of rubles to the wind, but grudges the poor kopeks that could save his soul; those who love fine dress or those fond of fashionable furniture and tableware spend enormous sums on clothing and furniture with tableware, but pass by the poor with coldness and contempt; those fond of eating well do not spare tens and hundreds of rubles for dinner, but grudge the poor kopeks. A Christian must fast because with the incarnation of the Son of God human nature has been spiritualized, deified, and we hasten to the heavenly kingdom, which is “not food and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17); “food for the stomach and the stomach for food—but God will do away with both” (1Cor 6:13). To eat and drink, that is, to have attachment to sensual pleasures, belongs only to paganism, which, not knowing spiritual, heavenly enjoyments, makes the whole of life consist in the gratification of the belly, in much eating and much drinking. Therefore the Lord often condemns in the Gospel this pernicious passion. And is it sensible for a man to live constantly in gastric fumes, in the vapors from the stomach, rising within from the constant cooking and fermentation of food? Is a man just a walking kitchen or a self-propelled smoke stack, which one might justly compare to all who are constantly smoking? What pleasure is there in living in constant fumes, vapor and smoke? What will our dwellings be like? Why shall we poison the air with stench and breathe it, and above all darken and suppress the soul, kill its last spiritual powers?

981. The students of educational institutions have learned much, but often do not know the one thing needful—God and themselves, their sins, their spiritual weakness, their nothingness without God and before God. Remember the prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian: Lord! Grant me to see my transgressions. To see one’s sins in their multitude and in all their hideousness is truly a gift from God, bestowed as a result of earnest prayer. What was said above should be applied to many, many learned persons and to the rich and distinguished: much they know, much they have, but often they do not know and do not have what is essential. “You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for such was thy gracious will” (Mt 11:25-26). Wondrous works! It is plain that God’s grace and the goods of this world are not one and the same, and attachment to them is incompatible with God’s grace.

982. Great is Your love, O Lord: You have poured out Thyself entirely for love of me. I gaze upon the cross and marvel at Your love for me and for the world, for the cross is a manifest imprint of Your love toward us: “No one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Your life-giving Mysteries, O Lord, serve as continual loud proof of Your love toward us sinners, for this divine Body of Yours was broken for me, for all of us; this Blood for me, for all of us was poured out, O Lord! I glorify the wonders of Your Holy Mysteries upon Your faithful, to whom I have administered them; I glorify the countless healings of which I have been a witness; I glorify their saving effect upon me; I glorify Your mercy toward me, manifested in them and through them, Your life-giving power acting in them. O Lord! for such great love of Yours toward me, grant me to love You with all my heart, and my neighbor as myself, to love my enemies—not only those who love me.

983. O Lord! In mutual love teach and strengthen me with Your Holy Spirit; the surges of passions that hinder heavenly, evangelical love, restrain them, and make our hearts dead to earthly pleasures. Grant me, O Lord, always to prefer Your grace to all earthly goods, Your peace, Your righteousness and holiness and to remain always in them, all the days of my life, until my last breath!

984. Lack of education, lack of development, failure to soften and correct the heart is a thousand times more culpable than ignorance of mind: for an ignorant person is a dark man deserving compassion and pity, but one educated yet given to passions and vices, malice, pride, contempt, envy, gluttony, overeating, drunkenness, greed, fornication and other passions, despite his knowledge, just as despite his knowledge of God’s will, is a hardhearted man, dead to God, for he does not apply the rules he has learned to life, does not fulfill God’s will and violates it even more fearlessly and boldly than the uneducated person. In an uneducated man, simplicity of heart, meekness, gentleness, humility, silence, patience are dearer before God than all our knowledge, all external polish, all learned phrases, all affected courtesies, all lengthy prayers, all intricately woven speeches; even his sins, as sins of ignorance, are more excusable. Therefore respect simple lack of education and learn from it what the so-called educated man lacks, namely simplicity, gentleness, patience and so forth. The uneducated are babes in Christ, to whom sometimes the Lord reveals His mysteries.

985. “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:16), are the Lord’s words concerning the Apostles. This is great praise to them. In what does it consist? In the fact that the Apostles, living in the world, were alien to it, alien to attachment to it, not seeking in it for themselves either glory or riches or pleasures or peace, but were as if beings of another world, a heavenly world; they thought heavenly thoughts and cared for heavenly things, they sought the heavenly glory of incorruption, heavenly, incorruptible riches, heavenly sweetness and heavenly peace in God and union with Him. We sinners, on the other hand, are of this world, because we seek the glory of this world, material riches, health, a long life on earth, enjoyment of earthly blessings, earthly peace, earthly joys. But because of our attachment to the world and its goods, all our troubles, passions, temptations arise, and all our failures in the Christian life.

986. Why do we need to pray at home and to go to church for the Divine Service? And why do you eat and drink and go out into the fresh air every day, or work every day? In order to maintain the life of your body and strengthen it. And prayer is absolutely necessary in order to maintain and awaken the life of the soul, to sustain the soul sick with sins, to cleanse it, just as you take food and drink to cleanse yourself from harmful humors or impurities. Therefore, if you do not pray, you are acting very foolishly and imprudently, sustaining, pleasing and strengthening your body in every way, while leaving your soul in neglect. For every man is twofold, consisting of soul and body.

987. It is better not to pass on reproachful words sent to us by someone, but to remain silent about them, or to pass on, though falsely, words of love and goodwill, so that our spirit remains at peace. But to pass on words of enmity and envy is very harmful; they often produce in impatient and self-loving people to whom they are directed a storm of soul, they awaken dormant enmity and produce discord. One must have Christian patience and the serpent’s wisdom.

988. How does it happen that one evil word, a word of slander, makes the most unpleasant impression upon us, shakes us to the depths of the soul, while on the other hand sometimes thousands of good words, for example, about God and His works in the world, do not touch the heart at all and are lost in the air? The devil comes and takes away the word sown in the hearts of men, and he, on the other hand, also sows and fosters in our hearts the seeds of malice and does not miss the least opportunity to implant in us enmity and envy toward our neighbor. A mere glance of a neighbor at us, often innocent, but seeming suspicious, is enough to sow in us a feeling of enmity toward him. Therefore let us not take to heart any evil done to us by our neighbors, either intentionally or unintentionally, knowing the cause of it and that “the whole world lies in evil” (1Jn 5:19) from the beginning, and let us be forbearing with every offense inflicted upon us, praying for those who offend us, as for benefactors, for sometimes even in their offense one hears words of benevolence, though not proceeding from a good heart. May the Lord enlighten them and not reckon this sin to them, and let us be more careful, so as not to give the devil a place.

989. In this age we sin constantly, and meanwhile we are so self-loving that we do not wish to bear any rebuke, especially before others; but in the future age our sins will be revealed before all the world. Remembering this awesome judgment, let us bear earthly rebukes in humility and gentleness and let us correct ourselves from all our failings and sins; let us especially endure rebukes from our superiors, and may the Lord enlighten them to rebuke not out of malice, but with love and a spirit of meekness.

990. Love righteous and unrighteous rebukes from men, so that you may be corrected here and not be rebuked at the Awesome Judgment before all the world, before all the Angels and men. Oh, the unbearable fear and shame of Your awesome judgment, O Lord!

991. One ought to pity every wicked man, and not be angry at him, thereby serving Satan; one should simply regard every enemy as God’s creature, as created in God’s image and as one’s own member, and not breathe malice upon him, that is, not be a devil, for an angry man is a devil at the time when he is angry. One must always be meek, gentle, merciful, patient, as if not noticing malice in others, one must “overcome evil with good”—with kindness and benefaction—“evil people” (Rom 12:21), or evil. God deliver us from evil suspicion, wherein all things in a neighbor are turned to the bad side: his movement, gesture, glance, voice, gait, every word.

992. I thank You, O Lord, that You grant me a new life every time I celebrate the Divine Liturgy with tears of repentance and thanksgiving, and receive Your most pure and life-giving Mysteries. To Your Holy Mysteries I owe the continuation of my existence to this day, the integrity of my ways and good renown among Your people. May Your great name be hallowed ever more and more in me and in all Your people, by whom Your holy name is called upon, and in all Your world; may Your kingdom come, the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, into all our hearts, as You didst say: “I will make My dwelling in them and walk about, and I will be their God, and they shall be My sons and daughters” (2Cor 6:16,18; Lev 26:12; Jer 3:19), and may Your holy will, wise, all-good, all-perfect and all-blissfulness-bestowing will be done, as in heaven so on earth in all Your people and in me a sinner, for our own will is erroneous, shortsighted, sinful, ruinous, unloving, evil, envious, proud, lazy, luxurious, avaricious.

993. And the need of the poor is persistent in its demands, sometimes shameless, and our passions are equally stubborn and persistent, bold and shameless, for example, stinginess, greed, fornication, malice, envy, pride, theft, heresy, schism, superstition, idolatry. But let us yield wisely to the persistent pleas of the needy poor and suffering; this will serve for our salvation and eternal blessedness. As the poor and suffering constrain us to compassion, so let us mutually compel ourselves to mercy; let us compel ourselves to do good while there is time, as sin constantly compels us to sin constantly and to anger God and to multiply for ourselves the fuel of the fire of hell, which is already beginning to glow here a little in our hearts and shows us a foretaste of the eternal flame, in which there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Mt 11:12). And the enemy desires with force to seize and drag into hell all who are careless, unbelieving, unrepentant, and attached to earthly goods.

994. Why is the day of rest celebrated every six days? So that we may remember continually that after the labors of this life there will come a day of eternal rest; “there remains a Sabbath rest”, according to the Apostle, “for the people of God” (Hebr 4:9). And the Lord’s day points to the day of common resurrection, after which there will come a day of rest for all who have labored well in this life, in Christ Jesus.

995. All sacrifices and alms to the poor will not substitute for love of neighbor, if it is not in the heart; therefore, when giving alms, one must always be concerned to give it with love, from a sincere heart, willingly, not with annoyance and sorrow toward them. The very word alms shows that it ought to be an act and sacrifice of the heart and given with compassion or sorrow for the poor man’s wretched state and with compassion or contrition for one’s own sins, in expiation of which the alms is given; for “alms”, according to Scripture, “cleanses every sin” (Tov 12:9). He who gives alms reluctantly and with annoyance, stingily, has not known his sins, has not known himself. Almsgiving is above all a benefaction to him who gives it.

996. “Do not be overcome by evil”, but overcome “evil with good” (Rom 12:21), chiefly through prayer for those who do evil. We ourselves, each other and our whole life with all its failings, mutual offenses, we deliver to Christ God. Let us not avenge ourselves on anyone, not even with a single evil thought or intention, but let us leave vengeance to God. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Rom 12:19; Deut 32:35), says God. We must love even enemies: after all, the devil teaches them and instigates them to be hostile.

997. The theater lulls and destroys the Christian life, destroying it, giving Christians’ lives the character of a pagan life. “They all slumbered and slept” (Mt 25:5), among other things the ruinous sleep produced by the theater. And what next? Sciences taught in a pagan spirit, cares of life intensified beyond measure, greed, ambition, lust for pleasure. The theater is a school of this world and of the prince of this world—the devil; and he sometimes “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2Cor 11:14), so as to seduce more easily the short-sighted; sometimes he will even slip in, seemingly, a morally instructive play, so that people will chatter and trumpet about the theater, saying it is a very moralizing thing and one should visit it no less than the church, and perhaps even more: because in church it is always the same, while in the theater there is variety in plays, decorations, costumes, and actors.

998. To test yourself, whether you love your neighbor according to the Gospel, pay attention to yourself when people offend you, mock you, mock you, or do not give the respect customary in society, or when subordinates fall short in service and are negligent. If at this time you are calm, you do not fill yourself with the spirit of enmity, hatred, impatience, if you continue to love these people just as you did before their offense, negligence, then you love your neighbor according to the Gospel, but if you are irritated, angry, disturbed, then you do not love him. “If you love only those who love you, what reward will you get?” (Mt 5:47; Lk 6:32).

999. Since we are pilgrims and strangers and wayfarers to the heavenly kingdom, we should not burden ourselves with cares about worldly things, attach ourselves to earthly goods, riches, pleasures, honors, lest these cares and attachments hinder us at the hour of death and make it shameful. A Christian must even here, on earth, become accustomed to living a heavenly life: in fasting, renunciation, prayer, love, meekness, gentleness, patience, courage, compassion. How heavy it is at the hour of death for a man who in this life has made money or food and drink or earthly honors his idol! Now all this is of no use to him, and meanwhile his heart is firmly attached to them and he does not possess the true treasure that gives him life, that is, virtue. Therefore, to make death easier—and everyone must die—one must not love anything in the world. “Having food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1Tim 6:8).

1000. In the church I am truly as on an earthly heaven; here I see the faces of the Lord, the Most Pure Mother of God, the holy Angels; here is the throne of God, here is the life-giving Cross, here is the eternal Gospel, this word of God by which all things were created; here are the faces of the saints; I feel myself in the manifest presence of God, His Mother, the heavenly Powers and all the saints. This is the true earthly heaven: here you know and feel yourself to be truly a member of the Body of Christ and His Church, especially during the transcendent Liturgy and the reception of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ. Oh, how ought I to live, think, feel, speak, so as to be worthy to be in this earthly heaven! I must live worthy of so great a rank to which I am called by the mercy of the great gift-bearing God. How ought I to live, with what meekness, gentleness, humility, purity, temperance, so as to be worthy to call the Most Pure Mother of God my Lady, my Lord the Lord of Glory! O Lord, deem me worthy of such a life! I wish to live worthy of the name of Christian, but I find no strength in myself; sin continually flatters and fights my soul.

1001. Call upon God without doubt, in the simplicity of your heart, and also the Angels and the saints who, by God’s grace and by communion or union with God and the simplicity of their nature, hear and, by God’s will, fulfill our prayers with remarkable swiftness, like lightning.

1002. To love God with all your heart means to have no attachment to anything in the world and to give your whole heart to the Lord God, doing His will in everything, not your own; with all your soul, that is, to keep the whole mind always in God, to establish all your heart in Him and surrender your whole will to His will in all circumstances of life, joyful and sorrowful; with all your strength, that is, to love so that no opposing force can tear you away from God’s love, no circumstances of life: neither “tribulation, nor persecution” nor “height and depth,…nor sword” (Rom 8:35,38-39); with all your mind, that is, always to think about God, His goodness, patience, holiness, wisdom, omnipotence, His deeds, and by all means to avoid vain thoughts and evil recollections. To love God means to love truth and hate iniquity, as it is said: “You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity” (Ps 44:8); to love God means to hate yourself, that is, your old self: “If anyone wants to follow Me…and hate his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Mt 16:24; Lk 14:26). In us, in our thoughts, in our heart and in our will, there is an evil force, exceedingly resilient and effective, which always, daily, every moment, strives to draw us away from God, inspiring vain thoughts, desires, cares, intentions, undertakings, words, deeds, awakening passions and inciting them with force, namely to malice, envy, greed, pride and ambition, vanity, laziness, disobedience, stubbornness, deception, intemperance. To love God means to keep His commandments. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word… He who does not love Me does not keep My words” (Jn 14:23-24).

1003. What riches the Lord has of light, air, water, earth, fire—these five elements of matter, of which our body is composed and by which it lives! What riches of products of earth and water, and man the king of creation uses most of all these! Thanksgiving to You, our Creator! Glory to You, our Provider and Redeemer, who have created us in Yours image and likeness and deigned to take upon Thyself our nature!

1004. In what does true human wealth consist? In the image and likeness of God, and not in lands, not in money, not in various earthly knowledge and arts, or not in the possession of various things, not in a multitude of servants, not in a multitude of clothes, in general in earthly goods, for all this is perishable and temporary, and the soul—the image of God—is eternal, and her wealth is virtue, holiness, humility, gentleness, temperance in all things, faith, hope and love.

1005. When I gaze with reverence and faith at the holy icons in the church and all its furnishings, I enter into a wondrous contemplation: the whole temple appears to me as sacred history personified, a wondrous utterance of God’s deeds in the human race. Here I see the history of our fall and our restoration through God’s wondrous providence, our glorification through the incarnation of God, our deification and elevation to heaven; here I see the Archangel Gabriel announcing the incarnation of the Son of God to the Virgin; here I see the birth of the Divine Infant, the Virgin-Mother, the Bethlehem manger; here circumcision, and there baptism, then the meeting of the Divine Child Simeon in the temple, there the Transfiguration and the light-bringing glory on Mount Tabor, there the entrance into Jerusalem of the righteous, meek, saving King, there the Last Supper and the establishment of the all-saving mystery of Communion, there the sufferings of the all-saving Lord of Glory; I see as it were Golgotha itself and the crucified Lord for the sins of the world; I see the descent into hell of the Victor over hell and the freeing of the prisoners of hell, the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, and all this for the sake of mankind and for my sake. In divine contemplation I am in the temple and I give thanks to the Lord, who loved me so much, honored me so much, blessed me! But when I look within myself—into my heart, O my God, what do I see! An abyss of sins, both voluntary and involuntary, an abyss of weaknesses, temptations, sorrows, afflictions, fears, the snares of the enemy, impenetrable darkness, thousands of falls, thousands of perils and deaths, I see in myself sometimes a veritable hell of darkness.

1006. All the power, character and cunning of the devil’s temptations regarding men consist in the fact that he has deceived and deceives, instigated and instigates men to love the world and that which is in the world: the vain wisdom of this age, riches, glory, distinction, earthly sweetness—and to turn away from God and the heavenly kingdom and blessedness; to love vain earthly things, to care about their greatest possible invention and acquisition and to despise the soul and its true needs; to love the flesh, its health, complexion, beauty, plumpness, sensuality and to hate the soul, that is, virtue, to forget the soul’s immortality, its prototype—God—so that it does not even think of immortality and the path leading to immortality, of God and of union with Him. Blessed are the holy saints of God, who despised the world and loved God, despised the flesh and devoted themselves to the soul, to an immortal thing; pitiful and wretched are we who love the world and its vain goods, who pamper the flesh and despise the soul!

1007. If our Orthodox faith, its mysteries, Christians sometimes cannot comprehend, this shows only that the minds and hearts of men are unclean and passionate and cannot bear the purity of its light, just as those sick with eye disease cannot bear the light of the sun. This heavenly treasure can be received into their hearts only by those who purify their mind and senses from the passions of worldly attachment.

1008. If all pastors, or priest-servants, and the flock prayed to God sincerely and unanimously, in unity of mind, with those prayers which the Church pronounces aloud to us or secretly performs, what would we not entreat from God? What good would we not obtain, from what sins and passions, from what evils, troubles and misfortunes would we not be delivered? These prayers are the wisest, most fitting, most well-pleasing to God, most powerful, capable of inclining the Lord to every mercy. May the Lord grant us all to pray to Him unanimously, sincerely, fervently, without distraction!

1009. Those who attend the Divine Service of the Orthodox Church and study the science of the Divine Service must remember that the service here, on earth, is a preparation for the most joyful service to God in heaven; that serving God with the body, all the more must one serve God with the spirit and a pure heart; that listening to the Divine Service, one must learn to serve God as the saints served Him, whose lives and deeds we hear of during the Divine Service, of their faith, hope and love; that one must serve God chiefly in deed and truth, not merely in words and tongue. By our very existence we are already called to serve God: for this we have received an upright stance, so that we might always gaze at God, give thanks and glorify Him; for this are reason, heart and will given, for this all the senses.

1010. O Lord! Grant me always to extend my petitions to You concerning the whole world and all the Church with all-embracing love, not falsely, for by Your grace I am an intercessor for all and for my own sins. Grant me, O Lord God the Father, to contemplate Your love unspeakable toward the world, which gave us Your beloved, only-begotten Son. Grant me, O God, Son of God, to contemplate Your self-emptying in the world and on the cross for our salvation; grant me, O God, Holy Spirit, to contemplate Your grace poured out abundantly and pouring out upon the world for the sake of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, filling so often even my wretched heart; O Holy Trinity, grant me to glorify You unceasingly with heart and lips, but especially with deeds.

1011. He who rejects fasting forgets from what the fall of the first men came (from intemperance) and what weapon against sin and the tempter our Savior pointed out to us when He was tempted in the wilderness (fasting forty days and nights); he does not know or does not wish to know that man falls away from God chiefly through intemperance, as happened with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and with the contemporaries of Noah—for from intemperance comes every sin in men; he who rejects fasting takes away from himself and from others the weapon against his many-passionate flesh and against the devil, strong against us especially through our intemperance; he is not a warrior of Christ, for he casts away his weapon and voluntarily surrenders to his lustful and sin-loving flesh; he is finally blind and does not see the relationship between causes and consequences of deeds.

1012. We must never forget that we are fallen beings, unclean, guilty before God the just, corrupted, and must always deeply humble ourselves before Him and before each other. This is taught to us by the Church prayers, read daily: God, be merciful to me a sinner… Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God… King of Heaven… Holy God… Most Holy Trinity… Our Father… morning and evening prayers and almost all prayers. Therefore young people being formed must know and remember above all that they have descended from a sinful root and are themselves subject to every sin, and this knowledge must be laid at the foundation of all other knowledge, and knowing much, let them not be proud, but strive most of all to cleanse flesh and spirit.

1013. Love your earthly homeland and the Father of your homeland: it has raised you, enlightened you, honored you, distinguished you, supplies you with all things; but especially love your heavenly homeland, the Father of the future age: that homeland is incomparably more honorable and dear than this one, because it is holy and righteous, unshakeable, infinite, incorruptible, beautiful, blessed; because it has given you and gives you incomparably greater privileges and goods than this earthly one; because the Father of that homeland is not a mortal man and subject to passions, but God eternal, who created all; it has given you the name of child of God, heir of God and joint heir with Christ; because your heavenly Father will make you partaker of all the goods of His kingdom, which “no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man” (1Cor 2:9). This homeland was earned for you by the priceless blood of the Son of God. But to be a member of that homeland, respect and love the laws of that homeland, as you are obliged to respect and respect the laws of your earthly homeland, for without this you will not become a citizen of so excellent a homeland; love this spiritually-educating school (the Church), which forms us into members and citizens of that homeland.

1014. The bodiless enemy fiercely fights us during the Divine Service, because at this time, through our mediation, the regeneration of our souls takes place by God’s grace; therefore let us not grieve from the assaults of the enemy, but let us be courageous and be strengthened, looking with the eyes of our heart at Christ the Founder of our struggle, standing invisibly before us and secretly accomplishing our regeneration in our souls.

Part Two §1015-1054

1015. The saints of God—beautiful incorruptible, fragrant flowers. Do not touch these flowers with lips stinking of sins, that is, pray to them with a pure heart and pure lips, not carelessly, not with a scattered mind, but with reverence, slowly. They are living heavens; they lived heavenly lives here on earth, wondrously, in great struggles, in great love, in great humility, gentleness, patience, self-denial, having loved God above all.

1016. In the Church are all our sweet hopes and expectations, our peace and joy together with purification and sanctification. Here the truth of future resurrection is so often proclaimed, victory over death. Who, loving life, would not love the Church with all his heart! All that is best, most exalted, most precious, holy, wise—all this is contained only in the Church. In the Church is the ideal of humanity; the Church is an earthly heaven.

1017. In the church we are sobered from the spell and intoxication of worldly delusion and the passions and lusts of this life, we are enlightened, sanctified, purified in our souls, we draw near to God, we are united with God (who wondrously united us with the Word of God through Your most glorious birth). How worthy of honor and deserving of love is the temple of God, as the holy saints of God loved it!

1018. One should not be saddened or irritated at anything, for through frequent sorrow and irritation is formed a harmful, morally and physically harmful, habit of being irritated, whereas through indifference to adversities is formed a good and useful habit of enduring everything quietly and patiently. Innumerable cases of mutual imperfections can arise in this life, and if at every case one were to be saddened, our life would not last several months. Moreover, sorrow and irritation do not improve things, but rather make them worse through our own disturbance. It is better to be always calm, even, always filled with love and respect for those morally ill with humanity, or more specifically, for our neighbors, relatives and subordinates. After all, man is not an angel, and moreover our life is so arranged that we sin involuntarily almost every day, even if we do not wish to. “The good that I want to do, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want to do, that I do” (Rom 7:19). And the Lord taught us to look with forbearance on frequent human failings and falls, saying: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:12). “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31; cf. Mt 7:12). And which of us does not want others to deal with us forbearingly and patiently in our needs, stumbles and falls, negligences, oversights? Therefore the Apostle teaches us forbearance and forbearance. “Love”, says the Apostle Paul, “is patient and kind,…is not irritable, does not insist on its own way,…bears all things,…and never fails” (1Cor 13:4-8).

1019. Faith and Church, Divine Service, mysteries, rites—all this, say freethinkers and atheists, was invented by men in order to keep the people in fear, submission and uphold good morality, and perhaps to collect revenues from them. Thus is the mercy of God and the wondrous providence of our salvation, the very incarnation, sufferings and death for us of the Son of God, blasphemed by the ignorant and freethinkers who have lost the fear of God. But look at their lives—how do they live and how long do they live? Having lost strength and health in vice and drunkenness, they prematurely become feeble, dull, fall ill and die.

1020. Christian love prefers to endure all external discomforts of life, narrowness, lack of fresh air, losses, rather than to allow impatience, sorrow, irritation, embittering, murmuring against those who constrain us out of necessity or through character quirk or desire to live at the expense of others, at the expense of another’s peace. Love endures all things and bears all things with loss to itself, to its material and bodily life: for where there is love, there is God’s grace and every good, there is peace, there is contentment. A Christian endures everything, only so as not to be deprived of God’s grace, which for him is the greatest of goods.

1021. What spiritual storms, hurricanes, terrible, fiery, violent whirlwinds often happen in the life of a human being, in the life of those people who strive to live a Christian life and to serve God with prayer, interceding for themselves and for others before His unspeakable mercy! Only by God’s mercy is not the vessel in which our soul travels across the sea of life to eternity quite shattered and not destroyed!

1022. A priest must by all means strive to maintain in himself boldness, courage, daring, against the bodiless enemy, who is continually sowing his delusive fear, his absurd terror in him; otherwise he cannot be a condemner of people’s vices, nor a true minister of the mysteries. Daring is a great gift of God and a great treasure of the soul! In an earthly war or conflict, boldness or courage means much, for it performs miracles; and in spiritual warfare all the more so.

1023. The source of all true joy flows in the temple, of all true peace and calming of conscience, cleansing, healing of soul and body, source of strength and spiritual vigor, and the theater and various worldly home comforts can never replace what a true Christian receives in the temple, in which God Himself comforts believing souls who turn their hearts to Him, as a mother comforts an infant. From the temple our deceased receive consolation and comfort, with the cleansing of sins and forgiveness. How ardently one must love the temple, how adorn it! And all do this who have known its value; and the Church prays for them, saying: let us pray for those who enter it with faith, reverence and fear of God, and let us pray for those who bear fruit and do good in this holy and most honored temple, or: save those who love the beauty of Your house, You shalt glorify them with Your divine power.

1024. Immeasurably great is the world, immeasurably many are the beings who inhabit it, but what order in all the course, in the whole life of the world (nature)! Immeasurably great is the world of supra-worldly intellects, the Angels, but what order in the angelic world, what strict fulfillment of God’s will! Great is the human world, but how much disorder, self-will, ugliness and hence calamities—calamities of disease, death of various kinds, war, famine, drowning, fire, calamities from storms and bad weather, calamities from drunkenness, gluttony, greed, injustice, perjury, from suicide, murder! There is no number! Woe to us! And what will it be there, beyond the grave, for all eternity?

1025. Man is a wondrous, magnificent, wise, artistic work of the most perfect Craftsman, God; in the beginning it was unstained, unblemished, incorruptible and pure, but sin, this ugly offspring of the spirit of darkness, this base, absurd, evil force, has made it both stained and sickly, unclean and perishable, in both its dual nature, body and soul. Nevertheless, the wise and almighty, most good Craftsman did not permit the enemy to completely destroy His handiwork, His beautiful and magnificent creation, and He Himself fashions for Himself a body like ours and receives a soul in the womb of the Most Pure Virgin-Mother; through His incarnation, through His teaching, miracles, suffering, death and resurrection, through His wondrous and wise providence, He restores the work of His hands to its former and even greater beauty and glory, grants it again incorruptibility, holiness, wondrous divine beauty, and elevates it to the first blessedness, having deified human nature and seated it with Himself on the throne of Godhead. Glory to You, most good, wise and almighty Craftsman!

1026. O invisible Benefactor of mine, by whom I live constantly! You, who hear me, fulfilling the desires of my heart in what is good, saving me from my sins, from the wickedness of invisible enemies, who order my fate, my enlightenment, my help, my glory, my strength, my foundation—when shall I see You? When shall I see my Benefactor and Creator face to face? But thou, my enemy, the devil, continually flooding my soul with sin, deceitful, flattering, malicious, continually killing me, darkening, weakening, covering my face with shame and dishonor—when shall I be completely delivered from thee by the grace, mercies and goodness of my Lord Jesus Christ? When will every possibility be taken from thee to pour thy poison of malice into my heart?

1027. What do I need? Nothing do I need on earth, except what is absolutely necessary. What do I need? I need the Lord, I need His grace, His kingdom in me. On earth, a place of my pilgrimage, of my temporary learning, there is nothing of my own, all is God’s and all is temporary, appointed for my temporary use; my surplus is the possession of my poor neighbors. What do I need? I need true, Christian, vital, active love; I need a loving, compassionate heart for neighbors; I need joy in their contentment and well-being, sorrow at their sorrows and illnesses, at their sins, weaknesses, disorders, failings, misfortunes, poverty; I need warm, sincere sympathy in all circumstances of their lives, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep. Enough of giving place to self-love, egotism, striving to live only for myself and drawing everything only to myself: riches, delights, worldly glory; not to live, but to die, not to rejoice, but to suffer, carrying within myself the poison of self-love, for self-love is the constantly poured poison into our heart by Belial. O, let me cry out with the psalmist: “What have I in heaven, and what do I desire upon the earth? My heart and my flesh have fainted, O God of my heart, and my portion is God forever” (Ps 72:25-26). O Lord, witness of my heart, the movement of it and of these lines! Grant me what I ask of You! From me this is impossible, but “all things are possible with” You (Mk 10:27). Give me true life, scatter the darkness of passions, drive away by Your power their power!

1028. What is the relationship between word and deed? God’s word called into existence from non-being the visible and invisible world; the word in the mouth of God the Word was deed. Therefore word and deed must be inseparable from each other, as soul and body are inseparable in their existence. He who keeps and performs Christ’s word faithfully and constantly, he for whom word is deed, even now performs great and wondrous deeds, and all things obey his word: demons obey him, diseases are healed, human morality is built up.

1029. The cross in Christ and Christ on the cross: the cross is the image of the crucified Christ, the Son of God, therefore both the sign of it and even its shadow are terrible to demons, as the sign of Christ, as His shadow, the Crucified One. Therefore it is very important to immerse the cross in water and to sanctify it; it becomes healing as a result of this and drives away demons.

1030. A Christian is God’s vessel, God’s temple, God’s house. Oh, how worthy of honor is a true Christian, how zealously must he flee from every sin, how must Christians respect each other!

1031. The abominable enemy strives to destroy love with love itself: love of God and neighbor—with love of the world, its fleeting goods and its corrupted, godless customs,—with fleshly love, love of riches, honors, pleasures, various games. Therefore let us quench in ourselves in every way love of this world and kindle love of God and neighbor through self-denial. Every beauty in this world (of face) is a faint, insignificant shadow of the uncreated beauty, unspeakable goodness of God’s countenance; every earthly pleasure is insignificant compared to future enjoyment. I beseech the Lord that Christian faith would penetrate to the depths of my heart, that it would work in my entire life, that the Gospel of Christ would penetrate into all my thoughts and feelings, words and deeds, into all my bones and marrow—and not only in me, but in all people, as the universal truth, wisdom and eternal life. “This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You didst send” (Jn 17:3).

1032. How fragrant are the bones of the saints! What wondrous aromas are the relics of God’s saints! How great a blessing it is to gain the incorruptible, fragrant grace of the Holy Spirit and with it eternal life! Why do we chase after corruption? Why have we loved the stench of sins and passion-bearing poisons?

1033. O Lord! Into prayer to You concerning us we bring the saints, these spiritual fragrances, this ointment of Your aromas! Receive their fragrant prayers, full of love and purity, concerning us, and deliver us from the stench of sin, for our hearts are unclean and our lips are foul, and we are unworthy of sweet discourse with You. All in us is earthly, perishable, unclean, wicked, and they, Your saints—the purest ointment—and especially Your Most Pure Mother, Your animated brightly-shining palace, the purest brightness of solar light, more fragrant than all fragrances, for the fragrance of Her holiness, Her divine virtues fills heaven and earth.

1034. With utmost reverence pronounce the name of God, remembering that by God all existing things are brought from non-being into being, and all that exists is upheld in well-being solely by His goodness, by His almighty power and wisdom. With utmost reverence pronounce the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by whom all things were created and all things are governed; who even now bears all that exists “by the word of His power” (Hebr 1:3); who produces times and seasons of the year—summer, autumn, winter and spring; produces all the fruits of the earth; populates the earth with men, animals, the air with birds, the seas, lakes and rivers with fish; multiplies the human race and provides it with all goods, saves from sins and evil spirits and prepares dwellings for those who love Him in His heavenly kingdom; who still brings forth the lights to illuminate the earth or to moderate the darkness of night, still breathes forth such a life-giving air for the breathing of all living creatures; has created such a wondrous property of fire which warms, burns and shines; the earth, capable of revolving with lightness of an air bubble around such a huge luminary as the sun, and around itself,—capable of producing, by His word, innumerable kinds of plants; water, capable of transforming into an innumerable multitude of the most varied juices in an innumerable multitude of fruits, trees, shrubs and grasses. “Our God is a God of wonders” (Ps 71:18,76:15), God most good, almighty, wise, God of mercy, compassion and human love. Who “is as great” as our God? (Ps 85:10). With reverence pronounce also the name of the Most Pure Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Ever-Virgin Mary, who bore Him for our salvation; through Her we have received from the Lord’s goodness countless blessings: forgiveness of sins, sanctification, enlightenment, renewal, deliverance from eternal death, ascension to heaven, adoption as God’s children, deification and eternal life. With reverence pronounce the names of the Apostles of Christ, eyewitnesses and servants of Him, who carried throughout the world His divine teaching and planted and spread the saving faith and Church of Christ on earth—the faith of renewal and salvation; the names of martyrs, born by their blood into eternal life; the ascetics, who by tormenting their bodies tormented in themselves sin and passions and attained blessed renewal and eternal life; the unmercenary saints, who by their lack of possessions gained the priceless treasure of spirit and eternal life, and of all the saints.

1035. This very flesh which we so cherish, rest, delight and fill with pleasure, is the enemy of our soul, very cunning and dangerous; it is continually opposed to God’s love, God’s will, God’s commandments and strives to fulfill its will and fulfills it almost always, unless some strong obstacle opposes the Lord God in His good and wise providence concerning our salvation. This flesh must be continually crucified with its passions and lusts, and not cherished; it must be mortified through fasting, vigil, prayer, labors, and the soul must be exercised in the reading of God’s word, in good thoughts, prayer.

1036. Brightly and warmly and peacefully it is for me when I wholly turn my soul to the mental sun—the Sun of righteousness, Christ my God. And the ice of my heart melts, impurity and rot are taken from it, darkness disappears, spiritual death recedes, heavenly life reigns, nothing earthly occupies me.

1037. “Having the mystery of faith in a pure conscience” (1Tim 3:9). The holy, divine, transcendent Christian faith requires a pure heart to act beneficially on the whole being of man, but in an unclean heart it cannot dwell and cannot produce salutary changes in it if a man does not correct himself from his vices. That is why in Christianity there are many called, but few chosen. Many are named Christians, but not many truly are; not many bear fruit of God’s kingdom; that is why in Christianity there are many atheists, freethinkers, superstitious people, misers, sensualists, fornicators, drunkards, thieves and so forth. Faith is not to blame that Christians are such, but those who bear Christ’s name upon themselves are to blame for their inattention to faith and its rules, for their uncleanness and their attachment to earthly things, by which they cannot receive in their unclean hearts the purest heavenly treasure—faith in Christ—and perish by the very source of salvation. Woe to us ungrateful, evil-natured, vain-minded, vain, sensual and lazy! O Lord, what shall we do? Overcome us with Your mercy, Your love, Your wisdom, destroy the striving of our flesh, overcome our malice with the power of Your goodness!

1038. Every man on earth is sick with the fever of sin, blind with the blindness of sin, possessed with the madness of sin; and since sin consists chiefly in malice and pride, one must treat every man suffering from the illness of sin with gentle love—an important truth which we often forget; we often act contrary to it: to malice we add malice with our embittering, to pride we oppose pride. This is how evil grows in us and does not decrease; it is not healed, but more infected. O Lord, have mercy on us, have mercy on humanity!

1039. From the tasting of the forbidden fruit in paradise mankind received a dire illness of the soul, an attachment to this brief life, to earthly goods and pleasures, this all-destructive division of heart between God and the world, good and evil; and since earthly goods do not satisfy the soul, created for the enjoyment of spiritual, eternal, infinite blessings, and they are not distributed to all equally, and by blind attachment to them some seize very much while others have very little, and still others have nothing at all, hence comes the eternal sin, enmity and death from possession; hence envy and hostility of individuals and peoples, hence wars of bloodshed, hence the luxury of some and extreme poverty of others, satiation of some and starvation of others, the grasping of high, rich places by some and the oppression of others, hence theft, robbery, every kind of evil. This is what the tasting of the forbidden fruit has done: it has brought so much evil that you cannot bail it out. And if the Son of God had not become incarnate and had not suffered and died for our salvation, then infinite grief would have come to all mankind, inconsolable, indescribable grief, for all would have perished in their sins, and endless ages would have wailed, gnashed their teeth in hell without any hope of deliverance, as now the unrepentant sinners are doomed to the same eternal torments.

1040. Occupied with vanity and vain pleasures, you have neither the time nor the desire to enter into the spirit of the Christian faith and of Christian worship, or to know the rules of the Church, the purpose of the feasts of the Orthodox Church and of the fasts, and in particular the meaning of each week of Great Lent or the historical commemorations bound up with each week. Sometimes you know by heart what play was performed at the theater, of how many acts or scenes it is composed, what its content is in general and in detail—yet you do not know the essence of the Christian Mysteries, though to those who receive them worthily they impart eternal life and the unutterable blessings of the life to come; you do not know the essence of the worship of the Holy Orthodox Church, your mother, who nourishes, warms, cleanses, sanctifies, and strengthens you within her holy maternal bosom; you do not know the content and meaning of the evening, the morning, or the midday service, nor of the perpetual hymns, readings, and rites of the Church. People justify play-going at the theater and call it useful and edifying, or harmless, or at the very least a lesser evil compared with drunkenness and dissipation, and with this aim they endeavor to set up theatrical spectacles everywhere. It is an astonishing thing that Christians have found no better means of spending their precious time than the theater—which, both in its origin and in its meaning, preserves to this day a pagan, idolatrous character, a character of vanity and emptiness, showing in itself, on the whole, the fullest reflection of all the passions and monstrosities of this world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and only rarely, very rarely, the valor of the sons of the fatherland—and that, of course, of the earthly fatherland, not the heavenly one. Everything heavenly, holy, bearing the seal of Christianity, is foreign to the theater; and if it ever does come onto the stage, it comes as an object of mockery: the very name of God, dread to all creation, is uttered here lightly, sometimes with laughter, blasphemously; sacred callings—for instance, the monastic, which is an angelic calling—are held up to ridicule; respect for authority, for parents, for sacred persons is undermined, when certain blameworthy actions of such persons are publicly derided before the whole assembly, before frivolous young people, even children, for whom the names of their parents and superiors ought to be sacred. Sometimes a single disrespectful or indecent word about one’s elders is enough to undermine the reverence due to them. Have Christians grown so frivolous that they find no better means of spending their precious time than the theater, and for its sake forsake the temple of God, the divine service, and the precious festive time given by God for instruction in the word of God, in saving meditations, and in deeds of virtue—senselessly squandering it on empty pursuits, on buffoonery and foolish applause in theaters? No, say what you will, the theater is an institution abominable to God. Only enter into its spirit, and you will agree: it is a school of unbelief, of scoffing, of insolent mockery of everything—and of depravity. Woe to that society in which there are many theaters and which loves to frequent them. Sometimes, it is true, the theater is a lesser evil for those who love what is evil. Listen to the voice of the people, to the opinion of those who have gone to the theater many times: they say without embarrassment that the theater leads to depravity. Only the blind, “in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2Cor 4:4), say that the theater is edifying. No, Christians must without fail study the Law of God, read the Gospel more often, enter into the divine service, keep the commandments and rules of the Church, read the writings of the holy Fathers and spiritual journals, so as to be filled with the Christian spirit and to live in a Christian way. There are your spectacles!

1041. Oh, how bitter my sins were to You, O Christ my Savior, my God, when You wert beaten about the face, struck, spat upon, pierced Your head with thorns and crucified on the cross—when You, in unspeakable torment, hung on the cross for my sake, freeing me from the bitterest, unspeakable torments of hell! But I often forget this terrible self-emptying of Yours, these torments of Yours, so that I do not sin and earnestly fulfill every virtue, love You with all my heart, fulfill Your saving commandments! Meanwhile I often forget this terrible sacrifice offered for me by the only-begotten, consubstantial, coeternal Son of the Heavenly Father. Grant me, O Lord, a pure heart and unchanging repentance for salvation, grant me the remainder of my life to be well-pleasing to You!

1042. How often have you called Me sincerely in prayer? says God to the sinner; how often have you given thanks with a sincere heart for My countless and surpassing blessings? How often have you brought Me a sincere sacrifice of praise, so that I might pour out ever more of My mercies upon you? And what shall I do with your corruption, your depravity, your corrupted mind and heart, your will inclined at every moment toward evil and vice? “Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline, and I beat every son whom I receive” (Hebr 12:6). Therefore do not despond when rebuked, chastened by Me, but endure. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebr 12:11).

1043. For the celebration of the Divine Liturgy there is required an elevated soul or a man with an elevated soul, not bound by any worldly attachments, lusts and pleasures, whose heart is all aflame with the fire of the Holy Spirit, with fervent love for God and for humanity, for every human soul, and especially for the Christian soul, so that with a sincere heart one might always rise to God in prayers. “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” (Lk 12:49). This fire was sent upon the Apostles in the form of fiery tongues. We too need this fire for our frozen hearts, to thaw, to soften, to melt and purify them always, to illuminate and renew them. Where is such a worthy priest who, like Seraphim, would burn in spirit, love, glorification, thanksgiving before the Lord for such miracles of His toward us and in us, for His goodness and wisdom? I, the first of sinners, unworthily celebrate this transcendent mystery, for I always have an unclean heart, bound by lusts and pleasures. O Lord, You see the depths of our hearts; but “Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Ps 50:9). If You do show mercy to the pure, there is nothing marvelous, and if You do save the righteous, nothing is great, but on me, a sinner, show forth Your mercy (prayer of St. John of Damascus at evensong)!

1044. O Lord! I thank You from all my heart, that without number You have saved me from dishonor, violence, the ferocity of passions and extinguished the arrows kindled against me by the evil one and encircled my soul with peace and refreshed it with the dew of Your grace. Glory to You, Most Merciful and Almighty, that thus far by Your grace I remain whole and unharmed, despite the countless deceits of invisible and supremely malevolent enemies, seeking to devour me. I know, O Lord, that You wilt also deliver me from all their snares and save me by the ways You know, into Your heavenly kingdom, and not me only, but all who live piously and are harassed by evil spirits: Yours it is to have mercy and to save those who wish to be saved and even those who do not wish it. Whether I will or not, save me (prayer of St. John of Damascus at evensong)!

1045. Let us pray to the Lord for the salvation of our souls. He who sincerely watches himself notices continually that our soul perishes in various sins, sleeps in sinful death, is continually taken captive by the devil and bears the strong chains of passions, and noticing this he sighs and prays earnestly to the Lord for the salvation of our souls, redeemed by the priceless blood of Christ. Thus our souls perish daily in malice, envy, judgment, greed, gluttony, overeating and drunkenness, fornication, laziness and negligence, dejection and murmuring, ignorance, foul language, idle chatter, frivolity, free-thinking, disobedience, boldness and self-will and other passions. For the peace from on high: for “there is no peace in our bones because of our sins” (Ps 37:4).

1046. Through its Divine Service the Orthodox Church forms us into citizens of heaven by teaching us all virtue through the lives of the Mother of God and all the saints, through cleansing, sanctifying and deifying us in the mysteries, through granting us strength “for life and godliness” (2Pet 1:3). Therefore one must assiduously, reverently and gladly attend Divine Service, especially on festive days, participate in the mysteries of repentance and Communion. Those who keep away from the Church and Divine Service become victims of their passions and perish.

1047. With what maternal love, or rather divine love, does the Church daily as it were carry us in her arms, rising up with never-ceasing prayers for all of us to the Lord, in the evening, at midnight, in the morning and around midday; she teaches us, cleanses, sanctifies, heals and strengthens us with the mysteries and in all ways guides us in the gentlest and most meek way toward salvation and eternal life. Blessed are those clergy and church-servants who understand this love and this care of the Church for the salvation of her children and strive to assimilate her spirit, to live this spirit, to breathe this spirit both in church and outside it, and with attention of heart and reverence perform the Church’s prayers, hymns and sacred acts, remembering that through all this both they themselves and their flock are saved.

1048. Man is a lofty being—a wondrous creation of God, formed in His image! If in a state of fall he is capable of many amazing deeds, which we constantly see both in history and in the world around us, then to what is he capable in a state of holiness and perfection? But more than anything in him deserves attention, wonder, reverence, gratitude with all the heart the fact that he can become like his Creator—God, that he is destined for immortality, for eternal blessedness in God and with God, that one day he shall be enlightened, like the sun, in the kingdom of his heavenly Father! The Lord, foreseeing this glory of His chosen ones, says: then, at His Second Coming, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43).

1049. At the proskomedia there is symbolically represented gathered around the Lamb, who taketh away the sins of the world, all the Church, heavenly and earthly, the Church of the firstborn, written in heaven, and the Church militant with her enemies on earth. A sight majestic, transporting and moving to tears! How, I too am in this company of saints, and I—the redeemed of the Lamb of God, and I—a co-heir of the saints, if I remain faithful unto death to the Lamb! How, and all my neighbors are members of this heavenly, holy society and co-heirs of the future kingdom! Oh, how my heart must expand to encompass all, to love all, to care for all, to strive for the salvation of all, as for my own! This is wisdom and supreme wisdom! Let us be simple, let us walk in simplicity of heart with all! Let us remember our high calling and election, and let us strive steadfastly toward the honor of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus! We are “children of God” and “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:16-17).

1050. Do not look at the sins of others and do not regard him who sins with hostility either in heart or outwardly, but present to yourself your own sins and earnestly repent of them, counting yourself truly worse than all; pray with love for those who sin, knowing that all of us are prone to every sin.

1051. A true Christian so conducts himself in this life that it is a preparation for the future one, not a life for this age only; in his actions he does not think about what will be said of him here, but what will be said there in heaven; he always imagines himself in the presence of God, the Angels and all the saints, and remembers that one day they will be witnesses of his thoughts, words and deeds.

1052. By love toward God and neighbor I belong to heaven; I am heavenly, and by cares, especially by worldly attachments—to the earth; I am earthly, demonic. O Lord and Master of my life, grant me a spirit of love, Your servant!

1053. Love; with love in your heart toward God and neighbor you will have all things and will not lack, for where there is love, there is God; and God is everything for us, and chiefly—our life, our peace, our sweetness, our blessedness. It is strange and pitiful to see how the devil deprives us of love for God and neighbor for such empty reasons: for earthly dust, literally insignificant and trampled underfoot, for money, for food and drink, clothing, dwelling, honors, this passing things together with its mother—the earth, and with our many-cared-for bodies—dust.

1054. Remember Love, who laid down His life for men; do not spare your own life either for your brother, and pitilessly crucify your fleshly self, turning away from sacrifice for your brother.

Part Two §1055-1094

1055. Greedy, hungry miser! Did money or bread give you life? Was it not God? Was it not His word that gave being and life to you and all other creatures? Is it not the Son of God “who sustains all things by the word of His power” (Hebr 1:3)? Is life sustained by money and bread alone, water and wine? Does not “man live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4)? Are not money and bread dust? Is not the least bread enough for us to sustain our lives? All things were created by a word and are sustained by a word. The word is the source of life and its preservation.

1056. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the Trinity glorify all His creations: the angelic choirs, chanting unceasingly the thrice-holy hymn, and the Holy Church of Christ, the holy Apostles, martyrs, hierarchs, ascetics, the righteous and all the saints, the whole visible world, all those now living as true Christians—the whole world. The truth of the Trinity of Godhead, as it were, is the air surrounding us on all sides, by which we breathe and through which we are entirely penetrated. Can one doubt the Godhead of the Son or the Spirit after this? How many deeds we see accomplished in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! How many powers of God’s Spirit have we experienced in ourselves and experience! The Holy Spirit is the spiritual air of rational beings. What air is to physical bodies, the Holy Spirit is to rational and free beings. He fills them, vivifies, sanctifies, enlightens, strengthens; the Son of God is for us “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), peace, (“I will give you rest”) (Mt 11:28), joy (“you will rejoice”) (Jn 16:22). We ourselves have experienced this and experience it. Whom then shall we listen to instead—the subtle whispering of an evil spirit, this gloomy, breathing falsehood, malice, sadness, narrowness and fire, which like smoke, like dust vanishes from the name and cross of the Lord? This deceiver—shall we listen to him and be confused by his snares? Be assured that he is pure negation of truth. If I say I do not know Him (the Father), I would be like you a liar. But “I know Him” (Jn 8:55). It is alone this that he always kills the soul that proves he is a lie, death, not truth, not life. We know one author of death—the devil. Amen.

1057. If we call upon the saints with faith and love, they will hear us at once: the uniting principle on our pare is faith, and on theirs, together with our part, is love, for they too are in God, and we “are in God, who is love” (1Jn 4:16).

1058. Why is prolonged prayer necessary? So that by the length of earnest prayer we may warm our cold hearts, hardened in prolonged worldly bustle. For it is strange to think, much more to demand, that a heart grown old in worldly cares might soon be penetrated by the warmth of faith and love toward God during prayer. No, for this there is need of labor and labor, time and time. “The kingdom of heaven is forcibly entered, and those who use force seize it” (Mt 11:12). The kingdom of God comes not quickly to the heart when men flee from it so zealously. The Lord Himself manifests His will so that we pray not briefly, presenting the widow as an example, who went long to the judge and wearied him with her petitions (Lk 18:2-6). The Lord, our heavenly Father, “knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:8), in what we have need, but we do not know Him, as we should; we are very devoted to worldly vanity, not to the heavenly Father; thus He in His wisdom and mercy and turns our needs into a reason for turning us to Him. Return, wandering children of Mine, to Me, Father yours, with all your heart, if before you were far from Me, at least now warm with faith and love your hearts toward Me, which were cold before.

1059. Worthy, heartfelt, reverent, trusting service to the Lord in the temple is a source of peace, joy and blessedness for our soul. So, a reverent priest, performing services, mysteries, prayers, in his very work finds for himself the greatest pleasure and blessedness.

1060. God’s word is a deed, life, existence, from the Being—the being, from Life—life, from Truth—truth. From the devil, fallen in a delusive pride, who wanted to appropriate to himself the impossible and fell away from life and truth, come delusion, a lie, from death—death.

1061. Man, they say, is free, one cannot or should not constrain him either in faith or in teaching. Lord, have mercy! What a devilish opinion! If one does not constrain, what will become of men? Well, what will become of you, proclaimer of newly invented rules, if you do not constrain yourself to any good but live as your vicious heart, your proud, short-sighted and blind reason, your sinful flesh disposes you to live? Tell me, what will become of you? Do you not constrain yourself to nothing, and I do not speak directly of good, but at least of the necessary and useful? How can one get along without constraining oneself? How can one not constrain Christians to the fulfillment of the precepts of faith and piety? Is it not said in Holy Scripture that “the kingdom of heaven is forcibly entered, and those who use force seize it” (Mt 11:12)! And how not to constrain, especially boys, to learning, to prayer? What will become of them? Will they not become lazy? Will they not become rascals? Will they not learn every evil?

1062. Concerning almsgiving now.—You fully enjoy earthly goods, you give to the needy, but you please yourself more, hence your good deeds are done without the least self-denial. Your works of charity are not great. But what more? What are merely seeming charities? With a charitable aim they arrange amusements, that is, first of all they intentionally want to serve their own sinful flesh, the devil, and then already—to the neighbor and to God. This is not charity at all! It bears merely the name of charity. We should not “do evil that good may come” (Rom 3:8). “Woe to you who are full now, for you will go hungry! Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep” (Lk 6:25).

1063. When you pray to the Lord and ask Him for spiritual or heavenly, material or earthly blessings for yourself or for others, then for complete confidence in receiving what is asked or generally in what is beneficial for us, according to God’s wise judgment, have in mind and heart the following words of the Savior: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him” (Mt 7:7-11).

1064. When reading certain truths do not say: this is not new, I know this, I have said this myself. All this is devilish pride; such an attitude sounds like the following reasoning: I know everything, good and evil—this means practically: I am all-knowing. And many do not read spiritual books and sermons because apparently they know everything, that it is all the same, that they have long known it, while they eagerly read and re-read worldly books in which there is exactly one and the same most hollow worldly vanity. Oh, vile flies feeding on carrion!

1065. The Lord calls all of us into communion with His divine nature, and we must carefully maintain among ourselves the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, as members of the Body of Christ, as limbs of one another. “We are members of one another” (Eph 4:25).

1066. After the worthy completion of a service and mystery, always thank the Lord from all your heart with a brief prayer, that He deemed you worthy of serving Him from all your heart with faith and love, His most loving intentions and works, for serving us, our God, Creator and Redeemer, is the greatest gift and blessing to us sinners, very fruitful for those receiving through us the sanctification and salvation of God, and for us ourselves, for it pacifies, gives life and brings joy. One must always give thanks to the Lord that He, sinners and unworthy servants of His, has deigned to make us His co-workers, as the Apostle says: “We are God’s co-workers” (1Cor 3:9); God’s servants and stewards of His mysteries: “let a man regard us this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries” (1Cor 4:1). Meanwhile what do many of us do?—We perform services and mysteries, prayers unwillingly, weakly, carelessly, hastily, with omissions, wishing to finish quickly so as to hurry to worldly vanity. What terrible delusion and what a grave sin! One cannot help but remember the awesome word of the Lord to those negligent in His work: “Cursed is anyone who does the work of the Lord with negligence!” (Jer 48:10). I said: what terrible delusion! Yes, a terrible delusion, for in our blindness we neglect the words of the Holy Spirit, breathing in the prayers and mysteries and services, we neglect precisely what for us with present zeal and diligence would serve as a source of sweetest peace, joy in the Holy Spirit and even bodily health, for the words of prayers at services and mysteries, read with faith, reverence and fear of God, quietly and with burning spirit, have an undoubted and wondrous property of vivifying, strengthening and healing both our soul and our very body. This is known from experience. A grave sin, I say, for in performing mysteries negligently, we thereby blaspheme God’s holiness. What then must one do to perform mysteries and services worthily, carefully and with burning spirit? One must always have a living faith that our God, worshiped in Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is always with us, looks at us and at the first word of our sincere prayer for help is ready to help us in the holy work, for the prayer of faith is like breathing for our body—absolutely necessary for us as long as we live on earth; prayer of faith is to the soul what breath is to the body. Remembering that the Almighty is always with us, and having Him truly in mind, rejecting from our heart all thoughts, doubts of worldly cares, concerns and attachments, we will always worthily perform God’s work.

1067. Concerning hypocritical prayer.—Did the Pharisees think they were praying hypocritically?—No; they considered themselves righteous in their very hypocrisy. It entered their habits, became, as it were, their nature, and they thought they were offering service to God with their prayer. Do modern Christian hypocrites think that they pray hypocritically and live hypocritically?—No. They pray daily, perhaps for a long time, they pray out of habit, with lips, not with heart, without heartfelt contrition, without firm desire to correct themselves, simply to fulfill an established rule—and “think they are thereby rendering worship to God” (Jn 16:2), while with their prayer they only draw upon themselves God’s wrath. We all are more or less sinful in the fact that we pray hypocritically, and we will receive great condemnation for this. Humble yourself, counting yourself as grass, which is nothing before age-old oaks, or as thorny weeds, which are insignificant and worthless before grand, fragrant and tender flowers,—for you are grass, you are thorny weeds because of your passions.

1068. When you give to one who asks, who is not poor, is healthy and apparently does not deserve alms—why does your heart begrudge to give alms to him—repent of this, for divine Love gives us blessings when we already have them abundantly. Love toward the neighbor should speak in you thus: although he has, it would not be bad if I increased his well-being (and to tell the truth, one or two kopeks will not greatly increase his well-being). I give to me from God, why do I not give to my needy brother? I tell you: to the needy, for who stretches out their hand without need? If you yourself received from God only according to your deserts, you would perhaps have to go begging. God is generous to you not according to your merits, and you yourself want Him to be generous. How then do you not want to be generous to your brothers, having abundance?

1069. Regard everything in the world as a passing shadow, and do not attach your heart to anything, do not count anything great, do not place hope in anything. Cleave to the single, incorruptible, invisible, wise God. “For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal” (2Cor 4:18).

1070. The treatment of soul diseases (passions) is entirely different from the treatment of bodily diseases. In bodily diseases you must stop at the disease, coddle the sore spot with soft remedies, warm water, warm poultices and so forth, but in soul diseases it is not so: a disease has attacked you—do not dwell on it with attention, absolutely do not coddle it, do not pander to it, do not warm it, but strike, crucify it; do exactly the opposite of what it asks; a hatred toward a neighbor has attacked you—quickly crucify it and love your neighbor; stinginess has attacked—quickly be generous; envy has attacked—quickly wish well; pride has attacked—quickly humble yourself to the earth; greed has attacked—quickly praise renunciation and strive for it; the spirit of enmity troubles you—love peace and love; gluttony overpowers you—quickly strive for temperance and fasting. The whole are of treating soul diseases consists in absolutely not dwelling on them with attention and absolutely not pandering to them, but immediately cutting them off.

1071. Regarding the fulfillment of what you ask from God in prayer, believe thus: as easy as it is for you to utter words, so easy and incomparably easier it is for the Lord to fulfill every word of yours, and if there is a word, then there is also a deed, for in the Lord there is no word without deed, “His word does not return to Him empty”, according to His word (Is 55:11). Always remember in prayer that God is the Being—from Him all: both thought about something, and word about something, and deed, and all—that He is wise, almighty, supremely good.

1072. How much people lose in home conversation, for its enlivening, in that they do not speak about God! How much it would be animated, would flourish and become varied! In believers then “from their bellies would flow rivers” (Jn 7:38) of saving words. How much edification such conversations would provide, how much comfort, true sweetness! Meanwhile now, not speaking of God in home circles but speaking of worldly vanity, they soon exhaust themselves in conversation, grow bored and then kill precious time in stupid games or dances. The enemy of mankind has noted this weakness in men to engage in vain, worldly conversations and in general to pass time in vain entertainments; he has extracted and continues to extract enormous advantage from this weakness: he has established theaters, circuses—a true embodiment of vanity, a true mockery of human vanity, and foolish people, inclined to vanity, to laziness and inactivity, gladly attend these theaters and circuses, finding for themselves no better occupation, which would give peace and pleasantness to their spirit. “Vanity of vanities—all is vanity. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is all that matters to man” (Eccl 1:2,12:13).

1073. You are ill, and your illness is very tormenting: you have lost heart, grown despondent; thoughts one darker than another beset you; your heart and lips are ready for murmuring, blasphemy against God. My brother! Take sincere advice from me: bear your illness with magnanimity and do not despond; on the contrary, if you can, rejoice in your illness. In what shall you rejoice, you will ask, when you are racked with pain? Rejoice that the Lord has visited you with temporal punishment to cleanse your soul from sins, “for those He loves He chastens” (Hebr 12:6); rejoice that now you do not indulge those passions which you would indulge being healthy; rejoice that you bear the cross of illness and thus walk the narrow, sorrowful path leading to the kingdom. Illnesses to our eyes present themselves only as painful, unpleasant, terrible: rarely does anyone from us during illness imagine the benefit which illness brings to our soul; but in the wise and supremely good providence of God—the Provider—no illness is left without benefit to our soul. Illnesses in the hands of providence are to our soul what bitter medicines are to our soul, healing its passions, bad habits and inclinations. No illness will return empty. Therefore one must keep in mind the benefit of illnesses in order to suffer more easily and calmly. “Whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1Pet 4:1), it is said in Scripture.

1074. God’s love surpasses a mother’s love. A mother bore me in her womb and brought me forth into God’s world by God’s arrangement, then she began to feed, caress, carry me in her arms; when I became able to walk myself, then she ceased to carry me in her arms, and even earlier she ceased to feed me from her breasts. The Lord, however, always, as it were, carries me in His womb: “whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in them”, He says (Jn 6:56)—or: “because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Apok 3:16), always carries me in His arms: “I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands” (Is 49:16); “bearing all things by the word of His power” (Hebr 1:3); He is my strength, my rest, my sweetness and joy, the light of my understanding and heart; He constantly nourishes me, like a mother with her breasts, with diverse products of the earth. He is for me strong food and inexhaustible drink (Akathist to Jesus the Sweet, kontakion 10). Parents in age abandon us and we them, for it is said: “a man will leave his father and mother” (Mt 19:5) (or in the true sense, or in the transferred sense—to Christ, who is the highest and holiest love, more loving even than a wife). The Lord, however, from the beginning of our existence until our death does not abandon us for a moment (before Me you are continually), always, every moment, providing for us, like a hen for her chicks. He is our hope even in death, our consolation at His judgment, He will not shame us then (Akathist to Jesus the Sweet, kontakion 5), and into the eternal dwellings of His heavenly kingdom will He bring us.

1075. Brethren and sisters keeping the fast! Let us fear the hardness of insensibility to our sins; let us fear the pride of our heart, which says: I have no need of forgiveness of sins, I am not guilty, I am not a sinner; or: my sins are light, human,—as if there ought to be demonic sins; or: it is not so bad for me to live in my sins. This is satanic pride, and Satan himself speaks these words in your heart. Let us feel deeply, deeply, with all our heart, our countless iniquities, let us sigh over them from the depth of the soul, let us shed tears of contrition over them and appease the angry Lord. We shall in no way excuse ourselves, as the Pharisees, hypocrites, for “no one living is righteous”, it is said, “before God” (Ps 142:2), and only sincere repentance for sins can appease God. Let us abandon indifference and coldness, let us serve the Lord with burning spirit; let us not forget that for a long period of a lawless life we have now come to appease the Lord of our life and our righteous Judge. Is it a time here for coldness and indifference, not approved even in dealings with men; ought not our whole soul to turn into a fire of the spirit and pour itself out in the tears of pure-hearted repentance? Oh, God our God! Our iniquities have truly become more than the hairs of our head, more than the sand of the sea, and we do not feel them, we are indifferent to them, we do not even cease to love them. What if You “shouldest mark our iniquities, Lord, who could stand” before You, O Lord! (Ps 129:3). Grant us all, O Lord, a contrite spirit and a humble heart, so that we bring You true repentance. Amen.

1076. When your faith in the Lord in life and well-being, or in illness and at the exit from this life, grows weak, grows dim from worldly vanity or from illness and from the horrors and darkness of death, look then with the spiritual eyes of your heart at the multitudes of the Church fathers, patriarchs, prophets and the righteous (Simeon the Righteous, Job, Anna the prophetess and others), apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, ascetics, the unmercenary saints, the righteous and all the saints. See how they, throughout their lives, continually looked to God, and at the exit from this life died in the hope of resurrection and eternal life, and be their imitator. These living examples, so numerous, are capable of establishing the wavering faith of any Christian in the Lord and in the future blessed life. Much is lost for piety and Christian hope by those Christian communities which do not honor the saints and do not call upon them in their prayers. They deprive themselves of great confirmation of faith through the examples of men like themselves.

1077. When your spirit grows despondent in illness and begins to present death with horror, then comfort and soothe your troubled, trembling and sorrowful heart with the following utterance: You, O Lord, by the depth of Your wisdom do lovingly order all things and give to all what is beneficial, and believe that He will assuredly arrange everything for our benefit: life or illness, disaster or sorrow, death—so that you could wish for nothing better. Do not say: it is too soon for me to die, I would like to live yet more for the glory of God, for the benefit of relatives, neighbors; I would like to look at the world once more, to enjoy earthly goods. Be grateful to God even for the fact that you have thus far enjoyed His goods, His mercies and bounties. Now submit to His will, to His calling, and at the same time do not despair in the continuation of this earthly life.

1078. In my heart I can enclose in faith and love both God and men, through the prayer of faith and love. How deep and spacious is the human heart! How great is man!

1079. A true pastor and father to his flock will live in their grateful memory even after his death: they will glorify him, and the less he cares for his glorification here on earth during his zealous labors for their salvation, the more his glory will shine after his death: even dead he will make them speak of himself. Such is the glory of those laboring for the common good!

1080. You are a being who has fallen voluntarily, corrupted by sin: here is the strongest incentive for thee to prayer; thou receive daily the greatest mercies from God: here is a strong incentive to gratitude to God; thou daily see the deeds of the almightiness, wisdom and goodness of God; here is an incentive to daily glorification.

1081. The manifestation of satanic pride in men.—Pride most commonly shows itself in the fact that the one infected with it makes himself equal to all or at least to many who are above him in age, in power, in abilities, and does not tolerate being below them. If a proud man is a subordinate—he does not respect, as he should, his superior, does not wish to bow to him, does not respect his orders, fulfills them reluctantly, out of fear; he equates himself with all those educated and does not give to anyone a superiority before himself or gives it to very, very few; if he is learned or even not learned, a son or daughter—he does not give due respect to his parents and benefactors, especially simple and crude ones, counting them equal to himself and even below. One must be extremely careful not to compare oneself with others in any respect, but to place oneself below all, although you might truly be better than many or equal to very many. All good in us is from God, not ours. “This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”; “not on the basis of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:9). “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit” (1Cor 12:4,11). And how can I be proud of another’s good and equate myself with those whom God Himself and public trust have placed above me? Therefore, “do not take the place of honor”, for fear “someone more distinguished than you” comes. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled; those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 14:8,18:14).

1082. When we speak of the Glory of God, of His will, of His law, then we must completely forget about our own glory and be entirely immersed in the contemplation of God’s glory or the wise, all-good will of His; we must not then think of our failings, which the devil introduces into our consciousness and feeling so as to lower us in our own eyes, to cast us into false shame, despair and despondency. One must remember that there is no perfection on earth in anything, just as there is no perfection in glory either: “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1Cor 13:9). And he who is ashamed and blushes for his imperfection is ashamed of a phantom appearing to him in his own imagination, he is proud of his imagined perfections.

1083. I have seen and heard men who with cunning and malicious gloating tell of certain dark spots in the life and activity of great and even holy people, and on account of these dark spots condemn the whole life of a man, calling him a hypocrite and scarcely a renegade. They will present you with facts—only these facts are as dark and questionable as dark is the suspicious, deceitful soul which wants to extract from another’s spot, from another’s sin, another’s weakness a kind of justification for its own vicious deeds. But they will not justify themselves, but will draw even greater condemnation upon themselves for seeing “the speck in your brother’s eye” and condemning him; “you do not notice the log in your own eye” (Mt 7:3). You say: this saint or this pious man has such and such sins. What then? He is a man, and no one of men is without sin. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1Jn 1:8). But are you sinless? If not—why do you cast the stone of condemnation at your brother? If I were to examine your life by God’s word, I would condemn you by your own words in countless and grave sins: both in pride and conceit, and in unbelief, and in greed, and in adultery, and in distorting the word of God and God’s commandments, and in coldness toward your faith…. and in how much else. I would find that perhaps your whole body is dark, because your eyes are wicked. Oh! How I dislike this devilish malicious gloating over the sin of a neighbor, this hellish desire to prove his true or imagined weakness. And yet such people dare to say that they respect and strive by all means to fulfill the law of love of God and neighbor! Where is the love of neighbor here when one even in great and holy people seeks to see and desires to find dark spots, condemns all his life for one sin and does not want to cover the neighbor’s sin if it truly exists? Forgot they that “love covers all things” (1Cor 13:7). How much evil do these moral worms cause themselves and others! They undermine legitimate respect for a certain person in many, they darken the light of that person for them, they turn them away from imitating him and confuse their souls with thoughts of judgment, but for themselves they harm themselves in that they receive from the devil the poison of judgment of a neighbor. Brother! “Who are you to judge the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Rom 14:4).

1084. Having invoked the Holy Spirit upon the Gifts before us and sanctified them through the prayer of change (during the Liturgy), remember that “heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Mt 24:35) and that bread and wine are infallibly changed into the Body and Blood of the Lord by the will of the Lord Himself and by the action of the Holy Spirit, even though the minister performing the sacred action were unworthy because of some weakness.

1085. Concerning compelling oneself to all good.—“The kingdom of heaven”, it is said, “is forcibly entered, and those who use force seize it” (Mt 11:12). Therefore it is necessary constantly to compel yourself to truth and good; in prayer you must at every moment compel yourself to utter each word with force, truly, from the heart; in case of oversight, inattention to your heart, compulsion to sincerity, the prayer will be hypocritical, false, opposed to God; you must convincingly for yourself speak the words of prayer. When the words of prayer are convincing to you yourself, then they will be convincing to God as well, but without self-conviction do not think to convince God to grant you any blessing. “God gives to us according to our hearts” (Ps 19:5): the more sincerity, heartfelt fervor in prayer, the more generous the gift.

1086. Remember, man, that you are moral and physical nothingness; moral because you are entirely sin, passion, and weakness, and physical because your body is earthly dust—that you might vividly and tangibly manifest your humility before God, as the ancients depicted it, and as some do even now, by sprinkling ash upon their heads, removing bright garments that nourish vanity and self-conceit in the immortal human spirit. Every least good thing in you comes from God, like the tiniest breath of air surrounding you or exhaled by you from the surrounding air.

1087. Glory to the Holy, Consubstantial, and Life-Giving Trinity! When the devil oppresses my side with displeasure, hatred toward a neighbor over some earthly, fleshly matter, and I grow heavy with torment, I stand and lift the eyes of my heart toward the Trinity and say: Father, Son, all-holy Spirit, have mercy on me—and I myself gaze upon the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as upon the very essence of the Holy Trinity, substantially present everywhere, even in a single word. Straightway it becomes easy, and the enemy flees from the all-powerful, ever-worshipped Name like smoke vanishing. Glory to You, holy and consubstantial and life-giving and undivided Trinity! Holy Trinity, teach me to despise all earthly things, teach me to find peace, contentment, and blessedness in You alone. And lest I grow proud because of Your gracious attention to me and the salvation You grant me, may I remember that You graciously attend to every worm, every chick. I will further recall that some Christians who wrought many mighty deeds in the name of God will hear one day from the Lord: “Depart from me—I know you not” (Mt 7:23,25:12), for their un-Gospel life. Holy Trinity, preserve me from pride and teach me humility. You graciously and swiftly hear me and save me; from this mercy I might grow proud. I might turn Your infinite goodness and compassion into an excuse for self-praise, as if I were worthy of such attention all by myself, as if I had wrought some good. Cover me, most merciful Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with the shelter of Your wing from every sin.

1088. When you speak the name of God in your heart or aloud—whether the Lord or the Holy Trinity or the Lord of Hosts or the Lord Jesus Christ—in that name you possess the entire being of the Lord: in it His infinite goodness, boundless wisdom, unapproachable light, all-power, immutability. Touch this all-creating, all-sustaining, all-governing Name with fear of God, with faith and love in your thoughts and heart. For this reason the commandment of God strictly forbids taking the name of God in vain, because His name is He Himself—the one God in three persons, simple Being, expressed and contained in a single word, yet at the same time not contained by it, that is, not limited by it or by anything in existence.

1089. The present life is no joke and no toy, yet people have turned it into a joke and a toy: they thoughtlessly play with the time given for preparation for eternity, they play with empty words. They gather to visit, sit and utter frivolities, then sit and play games of some kind; they go to the theater, where the actors and the spectators alike merely amuse themselves; some amuse themselves with their intellectual gifts, with human weaknesses or virtues, with the ability to speak or write well; they amuse themselves even with food and drink, using them excessively instead of using them only for necessary nourishment; they amuse themselves with their garments, they amuse themselves with their faces; they amuse themselves with their children instead of raising them in faith, piety, and fear of God. Their whole life is amusement. But woe to those who amuse themselves!

1090. O, how terrible it is to use food and drink for amusement, to gorge and become intoxicated! A full belly loses faith and fear of God and becomes insensible to prayer, to thanksgiving and praise of God. A satisfied heart turns away from the Lord and becomes as hard stone and insensible. For this reason the Savior carefully warns us against “gluttony and drunkenness, lest that day come upon you suddenly” (Lk 21:34)—because of the wrath of the Lord upon us for the thoughtless and idle passing of time in food and drink.

1091. As a man satisfies his sensuality, he becomes fleshly and distances himself from the all-holy Spirit of God, who cannot dwell in those who lead a fleshly life: “What fellowship has light with darkness?” (2Cor 6:14). Many very many people experience this state worthy of tears, and—alas!—do not realize that they do not have the Spirit of God within them, just as the blind from birth do not feel the great loss of not seeing light. Such people have no faith and love in their hearts and no spirit of prayer, they flee communion with the Church. My God! How many dangers surround me in life. I become my own greatest enemy when I excessively satisfy my flesh.

1092. Remember that the performance of the life-giving Mysteries is an unchanging agreement of the Life-Giving Trinity, predetermined from the foundation of the world; it cannot be otherwise. When you perform the Mysteries, God the Father Himself through His Holy Spirit transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ—you are merely an instrument. The Father Himself, the Son, and the Holy Spirit accomplish the Divine Liturgy and sanctify the gifts through you. “You are he who offers and is offered”, as it is said, Christ our God (priestly prayer in the Divine Liturgy). Remember therefore God’s immutability and His faithfulness in all His words.

1093. You will perform the Mystery of Repentance worthily only when you are not greedy for gain but lover of souls, when you are patient and not irritable. O, what great love for the souls of others is needed to hear confessions worthily, without haste and without passion, with patience! The confessing priest must remember that “there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Lk 15:7,10). How then must he strive to awaken the feeling of repentance in the penitents, who do not see what they should repent of as is fitting. Again, the priest must remember how the Apostle “taught each of the newly enlightened Christians day and night, teaching them with tears” (Act 20:31). Every desire for gain in the work of God must be cast aside; he must place his reward in God alone—the Lover of souls. Question about sins and teach with firmness and sincerity, not weakly and with a divided heart; firm words will awaken firm repentance, will quickly strike the heart and draw forth the tear of compunction and contrition of heart; but if the priest questions not firmly but weakly, with a divided heart, then his spiritual children, seeing the weakness and division of their spiritual father, will not be disposed to repent genuinely and from the heart.

1094. Imagine, to the measure of your ability, the all-power and magnificent splendor of the hypostatic Word of God. He speaks, and His word becomes at once manifold and diverse being; “Let there be light”, and light appears; He says, “Let there be firmament”, and firmament appears; He says, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place… let the lights be in the firmament of heaven… let the waters bring forth creatures…” and so forth (Gen 1:3-20), and all comes into being by His word. So a commander’s voice, sounding in the air and reaching the ears of soldiers, moves them as the commander wills; posting them in different positions, he urges them to different actions, accomplishing through them the fulfillment of different purposes and goals. Imagine these massive quantities of created matter; imagine how mountains were thrust up from the earth at God’s word; what a roar when the waters gathered into oceans, seas, rivers, and springs; imagine how the air spread out; imagine how suddenly appeared such diverse vegetation at the one word of the All-Creator—God; imagine how the lights appeared and blazed forth and began their infinite revolutions; how suddenly appeared fish, birds, reptiles, beasts, and finally man. And all of this (except man) from one and the same formless matter, or more precisely, from four lifeless, formless, inanimate elements. Does not the mind marvel at all of this? “How great are Your works, Lord; You have made all things in wisdom!” (Ps 103:24). Even now the Master creates from matter whatever He wills: He speaks—and it comes to be (bread and wine become the Body and Blood in the Eucharist).

Part Two §1095-1134

1095. Word-bearing creature! Remember that you have your beginning from the word of the All-Creator, and through union (by faith) with the creative Word, by means of faith, you yourself can be a creator of material and spiritual things. Believe that when you have faith in the creating Word of the Father, your word also will never return to you empty or powerless (when, for instance, you pray to the Benefactor God under the guidance of the Holy Church or according to the teaching of the Lord), but will bring you the benefit you seek. Believe that through faith in the creative Word you will not teach the people in the temple without success during divine services and the performance of the Mysteries in homes; your word in school will not be without success, but will create and strengthen the minds and hearts of those who listen to you.

1096. Remember that the very possibility of a deed is contained in the word; you need only have firm faith in the power of the word, in its creative capacity. In God, deed is inseparable from word; not one word from Him returns exhausted: “With God no word is powerless” (Lk 1:37); so it should be with us, for we are images of the Word, and the Word has intimately united Himself with us through the incarnation, deifying us, making us partakers of the divine nature.

1097. By opening to others the door into the Kingdom of Heaven through baptism, shall we ourselves not enter? By cleansing others through repentance and loosing their sins, shall we not receive forgiveness of our own sins? By uniting others to Christ in the Mystery of Communion, shall we not ourselves be most intimately united with Him in the evening-less day of the kingdom of Christ? By bestowing in chrismation the strengthening and growth-giving grace of the Holy Spirit, shall we ourselves not receive strength and power from the all-holy Spirit and not increase the gifts of our spirit? In truth we firmly trust to receive the promised blessings through the grace, compassion, and humanity of our Savior God. May God grant all to receive them! Only let us not grow idle, not lose heart, not “make provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom 13:14), but keep “the mystery of faith in a pure conscience” (1Tim 3:9) and advance in love for God and neighbor.

1098. When you doubt the ability to fulfill or accomplish a word of prayer, remember that the nature of a word is fulfillment and effectiveness, and that the Holy Spirit who teaches us “to pray as is fitting” (Rom 8:26) is called and is Himself the Perfecter—He Himself accomplishes our prayer (performed by the Spirit). Remember that a word is power; “with God”, as it is said, “no word is powerless” (Lk 1:37). “The word of the Lord does not return empty” (Is 55:11), but like rain or snow, it waters the earth of our hearts and gives seed to the one who sows (its fulfillment). Even people say: he has an extraordinary power in his words. You see—a word is power, spirit, life.

1099. When you pronounce the powerful, commanding, creative words of the Lord Himself, then consider their fulfillment such a common and easy matter as it is for you to breathe, to take as food, and as easy and common as it is for a child to form in the mother’s womb—and even far easier.

1100. To have unshakable confidence during prayer to receive every spiritual good from the Lord, believe that when you unite yourself to the Lord in prayer, you become “one spirit” with Him (1Cor 6:17), and God is all-good, all-powerful, supremely wise; He is all-perfect perfection; therefore, to the measure of your receptiveness, to the measure of your faith and love, you too will become a partaker of His divine perfections. In the union of your soul with God, regard nothing as difficult to fulfill or impossible; “all things are possible with God” (Mk 10:27)—not only what you can think of or do think of, but what you cannot even think of, or what you think of as impossible. For God is infinite Being and all His perfections are infinite.

1101. If you doubt that you will receive the blessings you ask from God, then remember at least how even you, being evil and stingy, not rich and not all-powerful, give to the needy, to those who ask you or even before they ask you give, knowing only their need. “How much more will your heavenly Father”, who is all-good, all-rich, supremely wise, all-powerful, “give good things to those who ask Him” (Mt 7:11).

1102. The more people you pray for and the higher the blessings you ask, the more fiercely the devil opposes the praying priest, so that through his zealous, fervent prayer God might not grant those blessings, for: “According to your faith”, as it is said, “it will be done to you” (Mt 9:29), and “All things are possible to the one who believes” (Mk 9:23). However, where the devil’s schemes increase, there God’s grace abounds even more.

1103. The one who prays must remember that if God did not spare His only-begotten Son for us sinners but gave Him up for all of us, then how will He not give us everything, every good thing we can think of? For if the infinite, great good is given, will not lesser goods be given? In Christ the heavenly Father gives and grants us every good. “All the divine powers that pertain to life and godliness have been granted to us” (2Pet 1:3).

1104. During prayer, in times of great temptation from the devil, “cast all your care upon the Lord, for He cares for” you (1Pet 5:7). In prayer, simply believe in the Lord, knowing He stands at your right hand, and all will be possible for you.

1105. When you sin for the fiftieth and hundredth time in a day, and extreme diabolical despondency and despair of God’s mercy take hold of you, say from the depths of your soul with Metaphrastes: “I know, my Master, that my iniquities have risen higher than my head; but the multitude of Your compassions is measureless, the mercy of Your guileless goodness is unutterable, and there is no sin that overcomes Your love for mankind. Astonish me then, O most wondrous King, guileless Lord, with Your mercies upon me a sinner; show the power of Your goodness and reveal the strength of Your tenderhearted compassion, and receive me, a sinner returning to You. Receive me as You received the prodigal, the thief, the harlot; receive me who have sinned beyond measure in word and in deed, in unseemly lust and in senseless thought, and do not rebuke me by Your righteous judgment, and do not chastise me in Your righteous wrath. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am not only weak, but also Your creature. You established Your fear upon me, yet I have done evil before You. I set my hope on You, my God! If there is any hope of salvation for me, if Your love for mankind boundlessly surpasses the multitude of my iniquities, be my Savior, and according to Your compassions and Your mercies loosen and forgive me all in which I have sinned before You; for my soul is filled with a multitude of evils, and there is no hope of salvation in me. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy, and do not repay me according to my deeds, and do not condemn me according to my doings; but turn me, defend me, deliver my soul from the evils growing up together with it and from their cruel assaults; save me for Your mercy’s sake, so that where sin has abounded Your grace may superabound, and that I may praise and glorify You always, all the days of my life; for You are the God of the penitent and the Savior of those who sin” (prayer before Holy Communion).

1106. Remember that if during prayer you do not utter empty phrases but speak the words of prayer with feeling, then your words will not return to you empty, without power (like a husk without a kernel), but will most certainly bring you the very fruits that are contained in the word, as fruit is contained in its shell. This is the most natural thing, just as natural and common in nature are the fruit and its shell. But if you cast your words away idly, without faith, not feeling their power, like a husk without a kernel, then empty they will return to you: you cast away a husk, a husk returns to you; you cast away seed, it brings you a whole stalk, and the better, the richer the seed, the more abundant the stalk. So it is with our prayers: the more sincerely and heartfelt you pronounce each word, the more fruit comes from the prayer: each word, like a seed, will bring you spiritual fruit, like a ripe stalk. Who among those who pray has not experienced this? Not without reason did the Savior liken the seed to the word and the human heart to earth (Mt 13:5). This must be said also of the words of prayer. Again: who does not know that rain waters the earth, plants, and gives them drink? So the Word of God, and our word spoken with faith, will not return to us without watering our soul or the souls that are obedient and believing. This is precisely as natural as it is natural for rain to water and nourish earth and plants and to promote their growth.

1107. Whoever becomes angry at another over something material places that material thing above his brother. But what is higher than a human being? On earth—nothing.

1108. When you pray, strive to pray for all more than for yourself alone, and during prayer vividly represent all people together with yourself as one body, and each individually as a member of the Body of Christ and as your own member: “we are members of one another” (Eph 4:25); pray for all as you pray for yourself, with the same sincerity and warmth; count their weaknesses and illnesses as your own weaknesses and illnesses; their spiritual ignorance, their sins and passions as your ignorance, your sins and passions; their temptations, afflictions, and various sorrows as your temptations, afflictions, and sorrows. Such prayer with great reverence is received by the heavenly Father—this all-good common Father of all, in whom there is “no favoritism” (Rom 2:11), “nor shadow of turning” (Jac 1:17)—this Love without limit, embracing and preserving all creatures.

1109. A wondrous thing! Our soul feels repulsion toward a disbeliever and someone cold to God when we encounter them, and the devil tries to turn this just disapproval and indignation into malice toward him. So that you do not harbor malice and serve the devil, you must say to yourself: I am disinclined and cold toward my brother because of his lack of inclination and coldness toward God, not because I harbor hatred and malice in my heart toward him, for I bear with him as my sick member and wish to heal him “with meekness, instructing those who oppose, perhaps God will grant them repentance to a knowledge of the truth” (2Tim 2:25). If he turns to God, I will also turn toward him with heartfelt love. If he becomes compassionate to others and does not think only of himself, his own advantage and pleasures, then I will sympathize with him. Besides, bear with everyone lovingly and look at yourself: are you not cold toward God and neighbor? If so, then it is pointless to throw a stone at your brother when that stone should be turned against yourself.

1110. For this reason God came down to earth, to lead us up to heaven (Akathist to Jesus the Sweetest, Kontakion 8). After this, it would seem that even living on earth, we need to live in the heavenly realm, advancing there in hope beforehand. In reality, the opposite happens for the most part. People with their whole being cleave to earth and all earthly things. Why is this? Because the common enemy, the devil, resists with all his strength the intention of the God-man Christ. He continually strives to do the opposite of what Christ has done and does. Christ desires to lead people to heaven and has given all the means for that; the devil, himself cast down from heaven in pride into the airy realm, below, desires in every way to bind man to the earthly, the sensual, the transient, and uses for this the strongest and most mighty means. Christ taught us the truth; the devil teaches lies and in every way tries to contradict every truth, bringing against it various slanders. The devil in every way tries to keep people in delusion, in the spiritual delusion of passions, in the darkening of mind and heart, in pride, avarice, greed for money, envy, hatred, evil impatience and irritability, in evil despondency, in the abominations of fornication, adultery, theft, false witness, blasphemy, negligence, idleness, and parasitism.

1111. Bear always in your heart the words: Christ is love, and strive to love all, sacrificing for love not only your reputation but also yourself.

1112. The root of all evil is a self-loving heart, or self-pity and self-sparing; from self-love, or excessive and unlawful love of oneself, flow all the passions: coldness, insensibility, and hard-heartedness toward God and neighbor, evil impatience or irritability, hatred, envy, avarice, despondency, pride, doubt, weak faith and disbelief, greed for food and drink, or gluttony, greed for possessions, conceit, laziness, hypocrisy. Never spare yourself in anything, crucify yourself—your old self nestled chiefly in the flesh—you will cut off all your passions. Bear patiently all that befalls your flesh unpleasantly, do not spare it, go against it instead, and you will be a true follower of Christ. All the wisdom of a Christian lies in this: in his life to go wisely against his flesh in all things, for “no good thing dwells in me, that is, in my flesh”, as the Apostle says (Rom 7:18).

1113. A completely healthy person’s heart grows weak for faith and love toward God and neighbor and easily gives itself over to fleshly lusts: to laziness, negligence, coldness, gluttony, avarice, fornication, pride; but the heart of an unhealthy person, or a heart wounded, troubled, exhausted, grows strong in faith, hope, and love and is far removed from fleshly passions. For this reason the heavenly Father, caring for our salvation, punishes us with various illnesses. The narrowness and sorrows of illness turn us back toward God.

1114. To love your neighbor as yourself, to sympathize with him in joy and sorrow, to feed and clothe him if he is in need of food and clothing, to breathe, so to speak, with him as one air—count this as much an ordinary matter as feeding and warming yourself, and do not think of deeds of love for your neighbor as of a virtue, so that you might not grow proud. “We are members of one another” (Eph 4:25).

1115. I marvel at God’s all-power and wisdom—how from the same earth and water He formed for me diverse parts of the body: flesh, blood, skin, bones, hair, lungs, liver, bile, veins, eyes, ears, everything—how this matter in itself inert and motionless He set in motion, and within me unceasing accomplished orderly movements of blood, juices, humors, separation of food and so forth. Wonderful “are Your deeds, Lord! All things You have made in wisdom” (Ps 103:24). You have no word to tell of God’s wisdom, goodness, all-power of the Creator and Provider—ask the Word of God. And what diverse variety of heavenly and earthly creatures, living and lifeless, from four elements? “Your understanding is too great for me; I cannot attain it” (Ps 138:6). From four elements—the sun, moon, stars, clouds, light, air, water, earth, various stones and metals, trees, all vegetation, the flesh of all animals, birds, fish and man!

1116. For me to think, and for God to think and create or transform—are one and the same, for He is the Being, the simple and all-powerful Existence. By His very simplicity, all is possible to Him in a single instant. The Lord spoke—this is enough for me to believe without doubt that the thing in question is precisely what He said. Doubt must be impossible. The Godhead would not be Godhead if it were not almighty. “Our God is in heaven and on earth; whatever He desires, He has done” (Ps 113:11); He desires and it comes to be. He desires water to flow from stone and it flows; He desired the world to come from nothing and it appeared. Deeds show that He is almighty. Come and see.

1117. Make your whole life a service to God: if you read anything at home, begin this task with a brief prayer of the heart, asking God to enlighten and make you wise in faith, piety, and diligent fulfillment of your duties; never read out of idleness, to pass the time; by doing so you dishonor the word, which should serve our salvation, not empty talk, and a means of pleasure and pleasant time-passing. When you speak with neighbors, speak thoughtfully, carefully, instructively, edifyingly; avoid empty talk as you would snake poison, remembering that for “every careless word that people speak, they will have to give account on the day of judgment” (Mt 12:36)—that is, they will hear a just judgment from the Judge; if you teach your own children or others’ children, turn the matter into service to God, teaching them with diligence, beforehand considering means for clear, understandable, and therefore (as much as possible) fruitful teaching. Overcome through the name of the Lord and the power of the cross the schemes of the enemy who strives to confuse, obscure, oppress, and weaken you. Even if you “eat, drink, or do anything else lawful, do it all to the glory of God” (1Cor 10:31).

1118. In every word—God the Word, simple Being. How then must one pronounce words, with what humility and care, so as not to anger God the Word together with the Father and the Spirit?

1119. My Lord, Lord Jesus Christ! My swift, most swift, never-shameful Defender! I thank You with all my heart that You heeded me mercifully—when I cried out to You in darkness, distress, and the flame of the enemy’s attack—most swiftly, powerfully, graciously You delivered me from my enemies and gave my heart spaciousness, ease, light! O Lord, how I suffered from the enemy’s schemes, how timely You showed me help, and how manifest was Your all-powerful help! I praise Your goodness, o merciful Master, the hope of the despairing; I praise You that You did not put my face to shame to the end, but mercifully delivered me from the darkness and dishonor of the abyss. How then can I ever lose hope in Your hearing and taking pity on me, a wretched one? I will, I will always call upon Your most sweet name, my Savior; and You, O boundless Goodness, as always, so now and in the future save me according to Your immeasurable tender mercy, for Your name is Lover of mankind and Savior!

1120. Do not believe your flesh when it grows weak and refuses to serve you, as if it lacked strength from food. This is a deception. Overcome yourself, pray earnestly, and you will see that the weakness of your body was false, illusory, not real: you will see in deed that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word coming from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Do not rely on bread.

1121. Christ on earth, ascend (1st ode of the Nativity of Christ), as it is said. This means that whoever believes in Christ’s coming to earth, in His incarnation, and in all His merciful providence for our salvation does not cleave to earth, but is constantly lifted up in thought and heart on high; his will constantly strives upward toward God, toward the heavenly goods, and is not seduced by earthly delights, earthly splendor, riches, honors. Unfortunately, we have little faith in Christ, and we try to combine love of the world with love of Christ, worldly attachments with love for God. It is incompatible! “If anyone desires to follow Me, let him deny himself” (Mt 16:24), everything beloved by him in the world to the point of attachment, and let him hate his sin-loving soul. (December 24, 1869).

1122. My God! How love and sincere sympathy from our neighbor sweetens our heart! Who can describe this blessedness of the heart penetrated with the feeling of others’ love for me and my love for others? It is indescribable! If here on earth, mutual love so sweetens us, then with what sweetness of love will we be filled in heaven, in communion with God, with the Mother of God, with the heavenly Powers, with the holy people of God? Who can imagine and describe this blessedness, and what temporal earthly thing should we not sacrifice to obtain such ineffable blessedness of heavenly love? God, Your name is Love! Teach me true love, as strong as death. See, I have richly tasted its sweetness from communion in the spirit of faith in You with Your faithful servants and handmaidens, and I am richly pacified and quickened by it. Establish, God, what You have wrought in me! O! if only this were so all the days! Grant me more often to have communion of faith and love with Your faithful servants, with Your temples, with Your Church, with Your members!

1123. Sweetest my Savior! You, having gone forth to minister to mankind, did not preach the word of heavenly truth in the temple only, but traveled through cities and villages, shunning no one, coming into the homes of all, especially those whose warm repentance You foresaw with divine sight. So You did not sit at home but had communion of love with all. Grant us to have this communion of love with Your people, so that we pastors are not shut off from Your sheep in our houses as in fortresses and prisons, going out only for church services or to perform the Mysteries in homes by duty alone, with merely memorized prayers. May our lips be opened for free speech in the spirit of faith and love with our parishioners. May Christian love toward our spiritual children be opened and strengthened through living, free, fatherly conversation with them. O, what sweetness have You hidden, O Master, our boundless Love, in spiritual, warmed by love, conversation of a spiritual father with his spiritual children, what blessedness! And how can I not strive with all my might on earth for such blessedness? And it is only the weak beginning, only a certain weak likeness of heavenly blessedness of love! Especially love communion in beneficence, both material and spiritual. “Do not forget kindness and fellowship” (Hebr 13:16).

1124. When the devil disturbs you with disbelief in the Mysteries, saying: it is impossible that bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ—say to him: yes, for you and for me it is impossible, you speak the truth, but not for God; “all things are possible with God” (Mk 10:27). For God, even a thought is a deed; for God a word is a deed. “He spoke and it was” (Ps 32:9)—He speaks and it comes to be. Brief and clear. And all the worlds stand by God’s word. “He sustains all things by the word of His power” (Hebr 1:3). Do not your feet want to be on top and teach—strange to say—the Creator of all? Is it possible to doubt what the world we perceive, both visible and invisible, assures us of? What is the mystery of the being of all creatures? In the word of the Creator: He spoke and it came to be. All things come from His word, all the infinite diversity of creatures from the almighty, wise, all-good word of God, from nothing else. You are shown examples in Scripture of how all came to be from God’s word powerfully and swiftly: waters are changed, at Moses’ word, into blood; the earth into lice; a staff into a serpent; a hand is covered with leprosy and suddenly heals, is restored; light is transformed into tangible darkness. Moses merely stretches out his hand, and the Lord in an instant transforms the substance of things; the land of Egypt is covered with frogs because Aaron, at Moses’ word, stretched out his hand over the waters; Moses takes ashes into his hand and throws it into the air, and people and livestock are covered with boils; Moses merely raises his staff to heaven and a terrible storm with hail appears (see Ex. chs. 4, 7–10). Come and see. See how easy it is for the Lord to create and transform everything! Is it not the same Lord who works through us—priests—and with us? Here is the Lord Himself, who for our sake became incarnate, both Offerer and Perfecter of all: He who offers the sacrifice and is offered, He who receives and is distributed (priestly prayer in the Divine Liturgy). The priest merely speaks the words, stretches out his hand—and the Lord transforms everything.

1125. Remember: reason is the servant of the heart, which is our life; if it leads the heart to truth, to peace, joy, to life—it fulfills its purpose, it is true; if to doubt, to restlessness, to longing, to despondency, to darkness—it deviates from its purpose and is certainly false (“falsely named reason” (1Tim 6:20)). If the heart feels peace, sweetness, ease from faith in something—this is enough; you need not demand proofs from reason in the truth of this object; it is certainly true, as the heart assures you by its life, for the purpose of all inquiry is truth and life.

1126. When performing the Sacrament of Repentance, you feel both your most wretched wretchedness before God and all the poverty, ignorance, sinfulness of human nature. The cross, truly the cross—confession! O, what a debtor the priest feels himself to his spiritual children at confession! Truly an unpayable debtor, liable to heavenly justice and deserving thousands of fires of hell! You see and feel that in the deep ignorance of people, in their ignorance of truths of faith and their own sins, in their hardened insensibility, the spiritual father must pray hard, very hard for them and teach them day and night, early and late. O, what ignorance! They do not know the Trinity, they do not know who Christ is, they do not know why they live on earth! And as for transgressions! And we seek enrichment, rest, we do not love labors, we become angry when there is more than usual! We seek spacious dwellings, rich clothing! Let us not love earthly rest, let us not grow idle, not be negligent of spiritual matters and not be deprived of eternal goods and heavenly rest; for those who have enjoyed worldly rest in abundance here, what can they expect there?

1127. The Holy Trinity—the most perfect union of three persons in one Being, because it is the most perfect equality.

1128. He gives alms truly who gives from the heart and with a loving heart. He is truly merciful who speaks with everyone from the heart, not from mind or lips alone, who gives everyone sincere, heartfelt respect, who proclaims the word of God and serves from a true heart, truthfully—in a word, he who embraces all and carries all in love in his heart, despising all material things that become an obstacle to love between him and his neighbor—he is truly merciful.

1129. To wean our corrupted nature from being seduced by the passing sweetness of sin, the Lord arranged it so that the very pleasant sensual pleasures, which we greedily pursue, are harmful both by their nature and by reason of our greed and excess; such are almost all delicious foods, all pleasant drinks, such are the pleasures of sensuality. Glory to the goodness and wisdom of the heavenly Father, who in every way turns us away from falling into sensuality or into crude sensual pleasures. He who has eyes to see and “ears to hear”, let him see all this and hear (Mt 13:9). So, O Christian, the very harm from sensual enjoyments, destructive to our body, shows that we were not created for them and do not live on earth for them, but for higher, spiritual, eternal enjoyments! So rest and enjoy yourself in God, my soul! Here is such perfect, harmless, true, eternal enjoyment! You have tasted it many times. But all earthly enjoyments are deceptive, harmful, passing, and bear within themselves from the very beginning the seeds of decay—we have only to touch them. Pain and sickness from them serve as proof of this.

1130. Brother! You feel in your heart deadly evil toward your neighbor, evil thoughts torment you about the offenses caused by him—here is the means to free yourself from inner distress: imagine the multitude of your own sins, innumerable in number, and vividly picture how the Master of your life bears with them, how He daily and endlessly forgives you your transgressions if you sincerely ask Him—and yet you do not want to forgive your neighbor for a few flashes of passion stirred up in him by the devil. Sigh—if you can, weep over your own madness, condemn yourself only, never your neighbor—and behold, forgiveness is ready for you from the Master; inner distress, like smoke, will vanish, your thoughts will clear, your heart will be at peace, and you will again walk in the spaciousness of heart; train yourself to harmlessness as though it were not you who heard the reproach, slander, offense, but someone completely different, or like your shadow; do not allow suspicion. “I walked in my harmlessness” (Ps 25:1). “When the wicked one rose against me, I became silent and humbled myself, and I kept silent” (Ps 38:2-3). “I became like the deaf—I did not hear, and like the mute, not opening my mouth” (Ps 37:14).

1131. The Bread of Life is Christ; let us then set aside other worries about bread. The Lord, who gives us food and drink and the very Flesh and Blood of His Son, will all the more give us bread. He who clothes our soul in Christ will all the more send us material clothing; He who is pleased to dwell in us will not leave us without a perishable dwelling.

1132. To doubt the Godhead of the Holy Spirit means to doubt your own life, for the Holy Spirit quickens and nourishes all spiritually, serving as a kind of spiritual sun, air, food and drink for the soul; it means to renounce prayer, for we pray in the Holy Spirit; to renounce truth and holiness, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and all sanctity; to renounce any spiritual comfort in sorrows and illnesses, for the Holy Spirit alone is the true and only Comforter with the Father and the Son; to renounce faith, for faith is given by the Holy Spirit; to renounce hope and love, for hope and love are bestowed by the heart also from the Holy Spirit: “God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us” (Rom 5:5); to renounce spiritual and physical strength, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of strength and might; to renounce wisdom and understanding, to renounce fear of God, to renounce your own breath, for He is the Breath, the air of the soul; in a word, it means condemning yourself to moral nothingness and killing yourself. Do not pay attention to doubts in the truth—they are the breath of the evil spirit, the spirit of lies—a murderer. “By their fruits you will recognize them” (Mt 7:16). Doubt in truth is always murderous for the soul. Every truth is the breath of the Spirit of God: God’s word, the creative works of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, the words and works and deeds of every pious person who loves the truth.

1133. Love for God and neighbor, in our present corrupted state, cannot be without self-sacrifice and has never been; whoever wishes to fulfill the commandments about love for God and neighbor must beforehand dedicate himself to labors and deprivations for the sake of the beloved. (Amen). “We know love by this, that He” (Christ) “laid down His life for us” (1Jn 3:16). “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

1134. God is eternally watchful, and therefore one must pray to Him with an ever watchful and sober mind and heart: “be sober in prayers” (1Pet 4:7), as it is said, and drive away from yourself forgetfulness and spiritual idleness. Do not permit your prayer to evaporate, leaving only dry words, but let it breathe with the warmth of the spirit, like moist warm bread just taken from the oven.

Part Two §1135-1174

1135. Many people pray hypocritically, and their hypocritical prayer has become habitual with them; they themselves do not notice and do not wish to notice that they pray hypocritically and not in spirit and truth, so that if someone said to them in condemnation that they pray hypocritically, they would be angered at the boldness of one who would say such, as they believe, an absurdity. Man does not arrive at hypocrisy all at once but gradually. At first, perhaps he prayed from the heart, but then—since praying always from the heart is a considerable labor, to which one must always compel oneself, for “the Kingdom of Heaven”, as it is said, “is taken by force” (Mt 11:12)—he begins to pray more with his lips, superficially, not from the depths of the soul, since this is much easier; and finally, with the intensified struggle of the flesh and the devil against divine truth, he prays with his lips, not bringing the power of the prayerful words to the heart. There are very many such people. The Lord says of them: “This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Mt 15:8; Is 29:13). What is said of prayer should also be said of receiving the holy, immortal, and life-giving Mysteries. Often at first a person receives Communion with living faith, with feeling of love and reverence, but then, with the continual resistance of the flesh and the devil to God’s truth, he yields to them in defeat and receives Communion hypocritically, partaking not of the Body and Blood, but according to his thoughts of heart, of bread and wine. The substance of the Mysteries “is spirit and life” (Jn 6:63), as the Savior said, “and is not contained” (Jn 8:37) in him; he is robbed inwardly by Satan. God preserve all from such Communion, from such blasphemy against the Lord! The same happens with the Sacrament of Repentance.

1136. Public confession for the priest is a school of self-denial: how many temptations for the priest’s self-love to impatience, irritability, spiritual laziness, respect of persons, negligence, inattention—here is the testing stone of the priest’s love for his parishioners! The priest must not live in ease and particularly coddle himself with sleep and pleasant food and drink, otherwise the devil will easily entangle his heart with some passion and plunge him into distress and enervation. Crucify, you must crucify your belly! Confession for the priest is a labor of love for his spiritual children, not respecting persons, long-suffering, merciful, not boastful, not prideful, not seeking its own (its own peace, gain), not irritable, not rejoicing in wrongdoing but rejoicing in the truth, covering all things, enduring all things, never falling away (1Cor 13:4-8). Here one sees—the priest himself sees, his spiritual children see—whether he is a pastor or a hireling, a father or a stranger to his charges, whether he seeks his own or those of Christ Jesus. My God, how difficult it is to hear confessions properly! How many obstacles from the enemy! How gravely you sin before God when hearing confession improperly! How words grow scarce! How the source of words is blocked up in the heart! How the tongue falters and reason fails! O, how much preparation is needed for confession! How much one must pray for successful passage through this labor! And the spiritual ignorance of the spiritual children! One must sit with them day and night with calmness, gentleness, and patience, teaching each one. What a cross for the priest is confession, with the consciousness of the children’s ignorance, their coldness, sinfulness of every kind, and with consciousness of his own wretchedness, his own weakness, the sluggishness and hardness of heart toward compassion and zeal for God’s glory and the salvation of others, as for his own! And how many crosses the devil lays upon you during confession! He transforms the work of love, the work of a father’s conversation with his children, into the work of a hireling reckoning with slaves against his will!

1137. Lord Jesus Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is everywhere. Angels and holy people are one spirit with the Lord. But if you, through the action of the evil spirit, have lost for a time the heartfelt faith in the Holy Spirit, then for you at that time there is neither Son nor Father, for faith is given by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, that is, the Spirit of Christ, who said of Himself: “I am the truth” (Jn 14:6), or the Spirit of the Father: “the Spirit of your Father speaking in you” (Mt 10:20), or the Spirit of the Son: “God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts” (Gal 4:6).

1138. About the word. In the word is the image of the Holy Trinity: in it are thought and word and spirit. When you pray truly from the heart, you feel that you are praying in the Holy Spirit: such warmth of heart penetrates the words; and sometimes you feel that you pray not in the Holy Spirit but in the spirit of lies: your lips speak one thing while your heart feels another, often quite the opposite; for instance, you pronounce the words with doubt, in the spirit of impatience, anger at someone, or in the spirit of pride, arrogance, not acknowledging yourself as you should acknowledge yourself.

1139. On malice. If you are angry with your brother for his sins, even serious ones, remember that you yourself are not without sins—serious ones too, though perhaps of a different kind. You yourself wish that your serious sins were covered by the merciful, all-covering love of those near you. How grateful you would be, with what love you would embrace and kiss them for their all-enduring love! How would this condescension ease your terrible sorrow over your sins, strengthen and embolden your weakness in the struggle against them, fortify your spirit with hope in God’s mercy! But what you would wish for yourself in such cases, wish that for your brother, do it for him—he is your member and a member of Christ. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:31), it is said. Always remember when you judge your brother in malice of heart for his sins, that you yourself are not without sin. “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye?” (). Hypocrite! “First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Mt 7:3,5). Besides, your brother “stands or falls before his own Lord” (Rom 14:4), not before you. And if your brother sins against you, you must absolutely forgive him the offense he caused you or his transgressions against you. You yourself desperately need forgiveness for your sins from your Heavenly Father every day and you pray: “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt 6:12). And if you want your sins to be forgiven you, forgive your brother his transgressions against you. “For if you forgive people their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive people their transgressions, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions either” (Mt 6:14-15).

1140. Our soul is a simple being, and therefore it cannot at one and the same time love both God and, say, money, food, drink, or love our neighbor and at the same time money, food, and drink. That is why it is said: “No one can serve two masters—either he will love one and hate the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Mt 6:24). That is why the psalmist says by the Holy Spirit: “If wealth increases, do not set your heart on it” (Ps 61:11). So every Christian, fear setting your heart on money, food, drink, fancy clothes, a fine apartment, books, worldly music. Do not love or caress your flesh with anything at all—whether with amusements, with beautiful sights, with delicacies and drinks, with sleep, idleness and laziness, with shameful deeds, with games, with idle travels, with empty books and spectacles. Love God alone with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself, but toward all else in the world be indifferent, attached to nothing, greedy for nothing. Strive for simplicity in all things, so that you may be beloved of the simple Being—God. Cast out cunning, doubt, little faith, and double-mindedness from your soul.

1141. God is Life: He has given being and life to all things. He is the Existent One and Almighty, for from Him all things exist and by Him all things are sustained. Him alone, the Existent One, let us know. The devil is death, because he voluntarily turned away from the Living God, and just as God is the Existent, so the devil, through his complete falling away from Being, is the author of non-being, the author of delusion and spiritual deception, for he cannot truly bring anything into being by a word. He is a lie, as God is truth.

1142. What air is for animal bodies and plants, the Holy Spirit is for spiritual beings—for Angels and humans. That is why the Lord said: “The Spirit blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (Jn 3:8). Therefore, believe that your soul breathes by the Holy Spirit, know your Benefactor, your Life, and reverence Him daily and honor Him with love and good deeds. Flee from the foul breathing of the devil—from sins and passions, especially from enmity, discord, pride, and unbelief. Say to yourself often: My soul breathes by the Holy Spirit; therefore glory be to me forever by the Holy Spirit, together with the Father and the Son.

1143. We must always remember that man is the breath of God’s mouth, the image of God—of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—while the sins and weaknesses in him are accidental things, coming from without, dirty stains that grace easily washes clean. “Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps 50:9). We must remember that “God so loved the world, though it is unfaithful and sinful, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). And we too, with God (in the way of God), must love every human being as ourselves. We love ourselves, though we are great sinners—we must also love others, though they are sinners, for there is no human being without sin.

1144. False thoughts immediately expose themselves, kill the life of the heart—a sign that they come from the liar, the deceiver, who has the power of death—the devil. True thoughts show their truth in deed: they give life to the heart—a sign that they come from the life-giving Spirit of God, from the living Father who goes forth and rests in the living Son. “By their fruits you will recognize them” (Mt 7:20). Do not be troubled or linger in confusion and uncertainty when murderous thoughts crowd into your head and press upon your heart and soul. They are false, they are from the devil—the murderer. Drive them away and do not ask where they came from, these uninvited guests; you will instantly know them by their fruits. Do not engage with them in argument—they will lead you into such a maze that you cannot get out, and you will become entangled and exhausted.

1145. I love to gaze upon the image of the risen Life-giver with a banner in His hand, with this symbol of victory over death and over him who has the power of death—the devil. “Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?” (1Cor 15:55) What a glorious Victor! What a cruel, all-evil enemy He has defeated—an enemy who had gloried in his victories for thousands of years! To You, Conqueror of death, we cry: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! We magnify You, Life-giver Christ, who for our sake descended into Hades and raised all things with Yourself! You have raised up the whole race of Adam with You, Christ, rising from the tomb.

1146. “For every idle word that people speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment” (Mt 12:36). You see that you await an answer and punishment for every idle word, not only for scandalous words. Because our Lord, the Word Almighty, has no idle words and cannot have them: “The word of the Lord does not return to Him empty” (Is 55:11); “No word is impossible for God” (Lk 1:37). And we were created in God’s image, and therefore our words also should not be spoken in vain, uselessly, or idly—each word of ours should have spiritual, instructive, and edifying power. “Let your speech always be gracious” (Col 4:6). Therefore, in prayer and in conversation, be extremely careful that you do not speak words idly, to the wind.

1147. How worthily can you receive the Body of Christ when you despise His members or do not show mercy to them? Christians are members of Christ, especially the poor. Love His members, show them mercy, and the Master will show His abundant mercy to you. Can there be any greater mercy than that which our Savior grants us in the Communion of His most Pure Body and most Pure Blood?

1148. The words: “For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever” mean the following: You alone everywhere and eternally reign, O Almighty and glorious King; or: the Kingdom is the Father, the power is the Spirit, the glory is the Son, for it is said: “I have glorified You on earth” (Jn 17:4).

1149. Do not be dead in heart. Do not allow your heart to fall into laziness, spiritual sleep, and hardened insensibility, for then woe to you when you must engage in God’s work, which requires labor of heart and mind. By every means root out from your heart pride—that which resists the Holy Spirit—both fleshly and spiritual pride. It surely hides itself in the heart and is clearly revealed in your dealings with others or during prayer.

1150. From the essence of the thinking spirit is born the word proper to it, which reveals within itself the thought and is equal to it. From the thought, and together with the thought, proceeds the spirit, resting in the word and in the word communicating itself to those who hear. This spirit is fully equal both to the thought and to the word and is present in them. For example, in the word ‘I love’ you see both the loving principle and the word born from it, and you sense a kind of pleasant breathing of love.

1151. I sing a song of thanksgiving to the Lord my God, my God of salvation! Before confession in Passion week, the enemy tripped me, striking my heart with tightness, confusion, and evil despair. But I prayed with all my heart with unwavering faith to Him, my God of salvation, and said: O God the Father, all-good! By Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, You have said: “Ask, and it will be given to you… for everyone who asks receives… Or what father among you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?… How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Mt 7:7-11). Embracing in my heart by faith the words spoken by You, I cry out to You: Give me now Your Holy Spirit, so that He may strengthen my heart for undertaking the labor of confession, for the wise discernment and binding of human consciences, for patience and forbearance, for kind and edifying intercourse with my spiritual children. And what happened? O God of mercy! I conducted the entire confession beautifully: calmly, kindly, edifyingly, without any heaviness or anxious hurry. I glorify the merciful hand of the all-good Heavenly Father. So always we must strengthen ourselves with heartfelt prayer to the Heavenly Father for every spiritual labor, as our Lord Jesus Christ prayed before appearing to mankind, before choosing the Apostles, before His passion.

1152. Do not be offended if someone speaks to you insincerely or deals with you falsely, for are you yourself always sincere in speaking and dealing with others? Are you not often hypocritical? Do you always converse with God in prayer sincerely, without hypocrisy? Are your lips not often speaking words of truth while your heart lies? Do you live sincerely, in simplicity before God? If you are not right before God and people, often lying and hypocritical, do not be angry if others are also insincere and hypocritical toward you. “By the things in which a man sins, by those he is also tormented” (Solom 11:17). Have mercy toward others in those things in which you yourself sin.

1153. Firmly believe that the malice in you—whether from the devil or from yourself—never overcomes and will never overcome the inexpressible, infinite goodness of the Lord. Great is the malice from the devil within you, but the goodness of the Lord is infinitely greater. Therefore, in doubt, little faith, blasphemy, malice, envy, stinginess, love of money, unintentional hypocrisy, beseech the Lord in hope and know that His infinite goodness will incline toward mercy for you if you turn away from your malice.

1154. Show kindness to the poor willingly, without suspicion, doubt, or petty scrutiny, remembering that in the person of the poor you show kindness to Christ Himself, as it is written: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me” (Mt 25:40). Know that your alms are always insignificant compared to man, this child of God. Know that your alms are dust and ashes. Know that with material alms must necessarily go together spiritual alms: affectionate, brotherly dealing with your neighbor with sincere love. Do not let him notice that you are obliging him, do not show a proud demeanor. “Let the one who gives do so with simplicity, let the one who shows mercy do so with gladness” (Rom 12:8). Take care not to diminish the value of your material alms by refusing spiritual alms. Know that the Master on the judgment day will test our good works. Remember that heaven and earth are for man, for “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled is kept in heaven for you” (1Pet 1:4). For man’s sake, God the Father did not spare His only-begotten Son but gave Him up to death. The devil, through our craftiness, causes us to stumble in our good works.

1155. The words of prayer are like rain or snow when they are pronounced with faith and feeling: in each one is enclosed its own power and its own fruit. The raindrops or snowflakes, falling continuously in streams or flakes, soak the earth, and it brings forth shoots and bears fruit. So the words of prayer—this rain of the soul—each one separately waters the soul, and it brings forth the fruits of virtues, with the help of the Holy Spirit, especially if there is also the rain of tears.

1156. Human charity is suspicious: it fears giving to one who has or giving too much. But the mercy of the Lord is not like that: “The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is upon all His works” (Ps 144:9). The Lord says: “To the one who has, more will be given and he will have abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken from him” (Mt 25:29).

1157. Do not do the will of your lazy flesh in prayer—do not hurry. The flesh, being bored and oppressed by holy work, hastens to the end so it can rest or busy itself with fleshly, worldly activities.

1158. Let simplicity accompany you everywhere. Be especially simple in faith, hope, and love, for God is a simple Being, the adored Unity, and our soul is simple. Simplicity in our soul is hindered by the flesh when we please it—when, for instance, we eat and drink sweetly, pleasantly, and abundantly, when we smoke, when we make merry, in general when we do what pleases it—for then the flesh takes dominion over the spirit.

1159. How sharply the spirit of good differs from the spirit of evil within us. On one side—a good spirit, the spirit of peace, quietness, joy, light, the life-giving spirit. On the other—the evil spirit, the spirit of tightness, anguish, despair, darkness, the spirit that kills our soul. The first is the Spirit of God, by which we live, breathe spiritually, move, and exist. The second is the evil spirit—Satan.

1160. God is Love and is unchanging, and we must be unchanging in love. “Love never fails” (1Cor 13:8). But lack of love, hatred, or mere indifference and contempt come from the devil.

1161. Every word of the Master is spiritual or material being, because He is the Existent and the Creator. The Master, Lord God, is almighty because He is infinite Spirit, boundless Power and Wisdom. And every thought of His is or can be, by His will, instantly deed and life.

1162. Unfortunate is he who loves excessive comfort in life and has surrounded himself with every possible comfort—he will avoid all discomfort, will become soft and will not grow accustomed to patience. Yet the life of a Christian is all discomfort: a narrow and rough path, a cross that requires discomforts and great patience. Therefore, do not seek, O ascetic, dwelling and surroundings of comfort, and do not love the comforts of this world, but love Christ bearing the Cross. Endure discomforts, grow accustomed to them. “I have learned to be content with whatever I have” (Phil 4:11), says the Apostle. Unfortunate is he who loves ornaments and seeks adornments for his body—he will not apply proper effort to adorning his soul with faith, love, meekness, humility, truth, patience. Especially unfortunate is he who seeks the adornment of honors—he will make an idol of himself and, like Nebuchadnezzar, will become puffed up before those who lack his honors and will demand worship from them. Not in “outward braiding of hair” (1Tim 2:9) does beauty consist. Even we men have become like women: we seek adornments and, like some idols, we adorn ourselves, but we give little thought to inner beauty, we have even completely neglected the inner chamber, the sanctuary of our soul. Unfortunate is he who loves haste—he will make many mistakes, he will encounter thousands of unpleasantnesses and inner straits from his haste and will often have causes for irritability. Unfortunate is he who is attached to food and drink, who is zealous for satisfaction and enjoyment—when he comes to work for the Lord, he will truly see that food and drink, if we set our heart on them, are a burden to the body, a sorrow and ruin of the spirit, and that man can be satisfied with very little and simple food.

1163. The human soul is simple, like spirit. Therefore, in love it also must be simple—it must love God as its Author, from whom it proceeded, and humanity as itself, like to like. It should not cling to worldly things for even a moment, for they are not akin to it. And thus, precisely because of this incompatibility with our soul, the soul feels such pain when it clings to them.

1164. Every word of Sacred Scripture, every word of the Divine Liturgy, of Matins and Vespers, every word of the sacred and mysterious prayers and prayer-services contains within it a corresponding power, like the sign of the Precious and Life-giving Cross. Such grace is present in every church word because of the hypostatic, incarnate Word of God dwelling in the Church, who is the Head of the Church. And every true good word possesses its corresponding power because of the all-filling simple Word of God. With what attention and reverence, then, must we pronounce every word, with what faith! For the Word is the Creator Himself—God—and by the Word all things have been brought from non-being into being.

1165. The Holy Mysteries are called Divine Gifts because they are given to us by the Lord completely free, as a gift, undeserved on our part. Instead of punishing us for our countless transgressions, committed every day, hour, and minute, and delivering us to spiritual death, the Lord in the Holy Mysteries gives us forgiveness and cleansing of sins, sanctification, peace of soul, healing and health of soul and body, and every good—solely by our faith. If the Master daily gives us freely to taste Himself in His Divine Mysteries, should we not also give freely tainted goods—money, food, drink, clothing—to those who ask them of us? And how can we be angry with those who freely eat our bread when we ourselves taste the priceless and immortal food of the Body and Blood of the Lord? “Do not demand back from the one who steals your things” (Lk 6:30).

1166. You live in the house of God—this beautiful world—freely and enjoy all the gifts of God’s goodness and mercy, given through nature also freely. You live in God’s house—in the Church, or in the community of the saved—and enjoy all the gifts of grace toward your salvation freely. And do not hesitate to do good freely for your brothers, as much as you are able. “Be kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked, so that you may be children” of your Heavenly Father (Lk 6:35). Receive all gladly in your house, knowing that you yourself live freely in the house of God—in this universe—and in the spiritual house of God—the Church, which is preparing you for eternal life. Give with joy and freely for all to taste from your table, remembering that you daily taste freely from the Master’s table—His most Pure Body and His Blood. (April 16, 1862.)

1167. You say: What shall I do with my heart? It contradicts everything true and holy. It weakens from unbelief where strong faith is needed, it betrays where fidelity unto death is required, it does not tremble and is even ready to mock where it should tremble and fear. What shall I do with my heart? you say. Recognize firmly, once and for all, as an unchanging truth, that your heart is a lie and a pillar of lies—“every man is a liar” (Ps 115:2)—while everything in the Church, from the Word of God to the shortest prayer, is truth. The Church of God is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1Tim 3:15), founded on the cornerstone—Christ, who is the Truth, and animated and guided in time by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth.

1168. The Church is the sure path to eternal life. Walk along it steadfastly, hold to it, and you will reach the Kingdom of Heaven. If you turn aside to the crossroads of self-will and unbelief, then blame only yourself. You will get lost and be destroyed. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).

1169. It is certain that the devil sits in the hearts of many people with a certain heartfelt laxity, weakness, and laziness toward every good and useful work, especially toward the work of faith and piety, which requires heartfelt attention and sobriety, in general spiritual labor. Thus he strikes the heart with laxity and the mind with dullness during prayer. Thus he strikes the heart with coldness and spiritual torpor when we need to do good—for instance, to have compassion on the suffering, to help those in trouble, to comfort the sad, to teach the ignorant, to guide the wandering and wicked back to the path of truth. We must constantly attend to our heart, drive out from it the mist of laziness and hardened insensibility, watch that it always burns with faith and love toward God and neighbor and is ready for all labors and self-sacrifice for God’s glory and for the salvation of our neighbor. “Kindle your zeal, stir up your spirit, serving the Lord” (Rom 12:11). The devil sits in our hearts with extraordinary irritability. We become so sick with self-love that we cannot bear the slightest contradiction, material or spiritual obstacle, cannot endure a single rough or harsh word. But that is precisely when we must endure—when the waters of malice and impatience reach our soul. “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Lk 21:19). “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house” (Mt 7:27). What will happen to it, what will happen to a man when the devil looses the hand of his temptations against him and breathes upon him the wind of his deceits? If a Christian stands firmly on the rock—Christ—he will not fall, but if he stands on the sand of his self-will and passions, he falls heavily (Mt 7:24-27).

1170. Am I not all in all to you, my worm adorned with My image? To what else are you clinging? In what else are you hoping? Do not abandon Me, the Source of living water, the very Life itself. Our Life—the Lord—is simple. If He is in the heart, that is enough. He alone will sustain our life. That is why it is said: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4).

1171. Do not be lazy in praying eagerly for others, at their request or of your own accord and together with them. You yourself will receive mercy from God—the grace of God in your heart, which will delight and strengthen you in faith and love toward God and neighbor. These are words of truth, taken from experience. We usually pray for others reluctantly, more out of need or habit, without full participation of the heart. We must compel ourselves to pray with all our heart, with great faith, with great boldness, so that we may receive great and abundant mercy from the generous and great-giving God. “Let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind” (Jac 1:6). The Lord, this common Father of all, is pleased when we willingly, with faith and love, pray for one another, for He is Love, ready to have mercy on all for their mutual love. The Holy Spirit has said: “Pray for one another, that you may be healed” (Jac 5:16). See how pleasing to God and how effective is prayer for one another.

1172. When you pray to God, do not imagine His closeness otherwise than this: that you every moment breathe in Him, move in Him, are enlightened, sanctified, at rest, comforted, and strengthened in Him—in short, live by Him, according to Scripture: “In Him we live and move and have our being… He gives to all life and breath and everything” (Act 17:28,25). “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:8-9).

1173. A Christian must pray for all Christians as for himself, that God may grant them growth in life and faith and spiritual understanding, and freedom from sins and passions. Why? Because of Christian love, which sees in all Christians its own members and members of Christ God, the common Savior of all, wishes for them the same as for itself, and by every means strives to do for them what it does for itself.

1174. We keep icons in our homes and venerate them, among other reasons, to show that the eyes of the Lord God and all the heavenly inhabitants are constantly fixed upon us and see not only all our deeds but also our words, thoughts, and desires.

Part Two §1175-1200

1175. I thank Holy Mother Church that she has shown me in the litanies what to pray for, for “we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26) in the litanies. Glory to the grace of the Holy Comforter Spirit! I believe that He, by the promise of the Savior, remains with us forever and guides us into all truth, and does not allow those who seek the truth of God with fervor and humility to go astray. Why do we begin our prayers with the prayer to the Heavenly King—the Spirit of truth? Because He is the Teacher of prayer and the Giver of prayer, He who remains with us forever and works in the world. We thank You, Lord Jesus, for on account of You the Holy Spirit entered into the world!

1176. Christ is our hope, our purification and sanctification, our resurrection, our life and our rest—He is the one thing needful for all of us. And therefore the Holy Church unceasingly pronounces these words aloud to us at the funeral service or panihida for the dead and in other church services, for we are inclined to forget the one thing needful. The passions of the flesh draw with them our mind, our memory, our imagination, our heart, and our will. Everything will be taken from us by death—all earthly goods: wealth, distinctions, physical beauty, beautiful clothes, spacious dwelling, all the delights of food and drink. But virtue of the soul will eternally remain with us, this incorruptible raiment. And Christ—our eternal wealth, our life, our true beauty, true glory and honor, our incorruptible garment—will eternally remain with us.

1177. So that a Christian may live a Christian life and the life of the spirit does not completely die within him, he needs home prayer and public worship, needs to attend with faith, understanding, and zeal divine services in the church, just as it is necessary to pour oil into a lamp so it burns and does not go out. And since sincere and fervent prayer comes with abstinence, to maintain Christian life, or the fervor of faith, hope, and love, fasting and abstinence are necessary. Nothing so quickly extinguishes the spirit of faith in us as lack of restraint, gluttony, overindulgence, and a scattered, dissolute life. I fade and die spiritually when I do not serve in the church for a whole week, and I glow and come alive in soul and heart when I serve, compelling myself to sincere, true, genuine, and fervent prayer rather than mere formality. But then how much I must overcome the bodiless enemies! How much I must conquer their cunning attacks and snares! The theater also extinguishes faith and Christian life, teaching distraction, craftiness (or skill in living in the world), mockery. It educates clever children of this age, but not children of light. The theater is the enemy of Christian life, a product of the spirit of this world, not of the Spirit of God. True children of the Church do not attend it.

1178. There is nothing more important in the world than the salvation of human souls, and there is no subject more worthy of constant and perpetual remembrance than the redemption of the world by the Son of God from sin, curse, and eternal death. The Holy Church has inscribed with indelible letters, images, and rites in her divine services the entire economy of our salvation so that people—so inclined to forget God and the salvation of their souls and all that God has done for our salvation, eternal joy, and blessedness—always have, so to speak, before their eyes and, as it were, in their hands all the great, wise, and good works of God concerning us, may continually stir themselves to repentance, improvement, and salvation, and flee from the vanity of the world, which is transient and fleeting. “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1Jn 2:17).

1179. Attend to yourself constantly, so that the spiritual life and spiritual-mindedness do not dry up in you. Reflect frequently on everything that you read and sing or hear in church or sometimes at home. Live the life of the saints, by their prayer, their mindset, their virtues: their meekness, their humble wisdom, their absence of malice, their self-denial and rejection of their own rest, contentment, and enjoyment, for the sake of love toward God and neighbor, their patience, their courage, their struggle—their faith, their hope, their love. “Keep your loins girded and your lamps burning, and be like those who are waiting for their master to return from a wedding” (Lk 12:35-36).

1180. If you read secular journals and newspapers, extracting from them what is useful for yourself as a citizen, a Christian, and a family person, then all the more and most frequently read the Gospel and the writings of the holy fathers, for it is sinful for a Christian who reads secular works not to read the divinely inspired writings. You follow the events in the external world—do not lose sight of your inner world, your soul, which is nearer and dearer to you. To read only newspapers and journals means to live by only one side of the soul, not by the whole soul, or to live only according to the flesh, not according to the spirit. All worldly things end with the world. “The world and its desires pass away, all its undertakings, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1Jn 2:17).

1181. Attachment to things immediately brings about cooling toward God and toward the work of one’s salvation, cooling toward one’s neighbor, or hatred and envy toward him if he depends on giving us certain things and does not give them, or if we are unwillingly obligated to give them to him. Therefore it is good to have a complete indifference toward things, so as not to have cause for enmity toward one’s neighbor, which is a great sin. Be above the attachments of this transient, vain, and fleeting world. Live in your heart in heaven and love those incorruptible goods kept there, prepared for those who love God and their neighbor.

1182. A priest, as an Angel of the Lord Almighty, must be above all passions and spiritual turmoil, above all worldly attachments and vain fears inspired by demons. He must be wholly in God, love and fear Him alone. Fear of men shows that he has not wholly cleaved to God.

1183. Do not gaze upon your physical face, but look more intently with your inner eye upon the face of your soul—what is it like? Have the passions not disfigured it? Destroy this disfigurement with prayer and tearful repentance. Do not gaze upon beautiful clothes—they are perishable—but upon the imperishable raiment of your soul—what is it like? Is it not foul and unclean because of frequent secret and open falls into sin? Strive for the soul’s garment in the imperishable beauty of meekness, humility, chastity and purity, mercy, and righteousness.

1184. I believe in one holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Do you believe that all Orthodox Christians are members of one and the same body, and that therefore we all must “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3), must guard one another, care for one another, help one another? Do you believe that the holy saints are also members of the one body of Christ—that is, the Church—and are our brothers, interceding before God for us in heaven? Do you respect every Christian as a member of Christ, as His brother in humanity? Do you love each one as yourself, as your own flesh and blood? Do you forgive offenses with magnanimity? Do you help those in need if you yourself have abundance? Do you teach the ignorant, do you turn the sinner from his wandering way? Do you comfort the sad? All this faith in the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church inspires you and obliges you to do, and a great reward is promised you for all this from the Head of the Church—the Lord Jesus Christ.

1185. As we are drawn away by attachment to perishable things, by thoughts and cares about them, we lose objects of the greatest importance, objects truly akin to our soul, that constitute its true and eternal element. We dig for ourselves cisterns “that cannot hold water” and abandon “the fountain of living water” (Jer 2:13). We do not make spiritual, holy, heavenly, life-giving thoughts pare of our life, into our blood and vital fluids, but continue to live by worldly, earthly, passionate thoughts and aspirations that only torment, torture, and kill us. O, if we would always think as the Gospel thinks, as the Holy Church thinks in her divine services, in the prayers at the performance of the mysteries and various prayer-services, as the holy fathers think in their writings! Then all of us, even on earth, would be citizens of heaven, rational heavens.

1186. The Divine Liturgy is truly a heavenly service performed on earth, during which God Himself is present and remains with people in a special, immediate, and intimate manner, being Himself the invisible Celebrant, the one who offers and is offered. There is nothing on earth more holy, more exalted, more magnificent, more solemn, more life-giving than the Liturgy! At this special time, the temple becomes an earthly heaven. The clergy represent Christ Himself, the Angels, the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the Apostles. The Liturgy is the constantly repeated celebration of the salvation of the whole world and of each member individually. The Wedding Feast of the Lamb—the wedding of the King’s Son, at which the Bride of the Son of God is each faithful soul, and the Bridegroom is the Holy Spirit. With what prepared, pure, and elevated soul one must always be present at the Liturgy, so as not to be among those people who, having no wedding garment but possessing the defiled raiment of passions, are bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness! But nowadays, sadly, many do not think it necessary to attend the Liturgy. Some go only from habit and leave just as they came—without elevated thoughts, without a contrite heart, with a restless soul, without determination for improvement. Some stand without reverence, distractedly, without any concentration, without any preparation at home through reflection and abstinence, for many manage to drink before the Liturgy, and sometimes even to eat. When the Lord came down on Sinai, the Hebrew people were commanded beforehand to prepare and purify themselves. Here is an appearance of God no less than Sinai’s, but greater: there only the “back” of God (Ex 33:23), but here the very face of God, the Lawgiver. When the Lord appeared to Moses at Horeb in the burning bush, he was commanded to take off his shoes. And here is even greater than the Horeb theophany: there was a shadow, here is the very Reality. O, how attached we are to the earthly! We do not even want to dedicate one hour, as we should, exclusively to God! During the Divine, transcendent Liturgy, and then we permit ourselves to dream of earthly things and fill our soul with images and desires of earthly things, sometimes—alas!—even with unclean images! Meanwhile we should be praying fervently, meditating earnestly on this great mystery, repenting of our sins, desiring and asking for purification, sanctification, dedication, renewal, and strengthening in Christian life, in fulfilling the commandments of Christ, praying for the living and the dead. For the Liturgy is a sacrifice of atonement, of thanksgiving, of praise, and of petition. Great is the Liturgy! In it is remembered the whole life not of some great man, but of God, who became incarnate, suffered, and died for us, rose again, ascended, and will come again to judge the whole world!

1187. What is false gratitude to God? False gratitude is when, receiving generous, undeserved gifts—both spiritual and material—from God, we thank God with our tongue for them but use them only for ourselves, not sharing them with others. We receive them and hide them in our treasuries, chests, and libraries, thereby depriving many of our brothers of spiritual illumination, edification, consolation, or food, drink, clothing, shelter, healing in sickness, or the means to move from place to place to earn their livelihood. Such gratitude is false and contrary to God. This means: to thank with the tongue while in deed showing the most extreme ingratitude and malice. And how many such grateful ones—or rather, ungrateful ones—there are!

1188. Our corrupted nature is prone to the swift forgetting of everything holy and salvific, because sins and passions ceaselessly becloud and darken our heads and hearts, occupy them and hold sway in them, crowding out the memories, thoughts, and feelings of sacred events and of God’s great benefactions to us. Therefore the Holy Church, the faithful keeper of the commandments of her Lord, of all His teaching and all His deeds, forever grateful for His unutterable benefactions, has established that there be commemorated—solemnly, in daily services as well as in those of Sundays and feast days, with a vivid, graphic, imaged ritual—all the salvific events from the life and deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ, the whole economy of His salvation in both the Old and the New Testament, likewise His very creation of the world visible and invisible; and not only the events from His all-saving, wonderworking life, but also from the life of His Most Pure Mother, who served so gloriously the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, from the life of His Forerunner, of the Apostles, of His prophets, of the hierarchs, martyrs, venerable ones, unmercenaries, the righteous, and all the saints who in every way served and pleased God—those countless witnesses of the Lord, of the truth and the saving power of His divine faith and of all His divine teaching, who by His promise have inherited eternal life. This is useful and needful for the strengthening of our faith, hope, and love, for the spiritual upbringing of Christian humanity, for its perpetual instruction in the dogmas of the faith and in the various virtues: faithfulness, courage, patience, meekness, freedom from malice, humility, non-acquisitiveness, temperance, purity and chastity, and the rest of the virtues; for the life of the Lord and of His Most Pure Mother, as well as of the saints, presents models of every virtue, fulfilling which a person may readily please God and save his own soul and the souls of his brethren.

1189. The science of sciences is to conquer the sin that dwells in us, or the passions acting in us; for example: it is great wisdom to be angry at no one and for no reason, to think evil of no one—even should someone do us evil—but by every means to excuse him; it is wisdom to despise gain and pleasures, and to love non-acquisitiveness and simplicity in food and drink with constant moderation; it is wisdom to flatter no one, but to tell everyone the truth fearlessly; it is wisdom not to be captivated by beauty of face, but to reverence in every person, comely or uncomely, the beauty of the image of God, which is the same in all; it is wisdom to love enemies and to take no revenge on them in word, thought, or deed; it is wisdom not to gather riches for oneself, but to give alms to the poor, that we may acquire for ourselves “a treasure that does not fail in the heavens” (Lk 12:33). Alas! we have studied nearly every science, yet the science of shunning sin we have not studied at all, and we often prove to be utter ignoramuses in this moral science. And so it turns out that the truly wise, the truly learned, were the saints, the true disciples of the true Teacher—Christ; while all of us so-called learned ones are ignoramuses, and the more learned, the worse the ignoramuses, because we do not know and do not do the one thing needful, but toil for self-love, love of glory, love of pleasure, and gain.

1190. How dispassionate a priest must be toward earthly things, so that, while performing such services and such lofty, more-than-heavenly Mysteries, he may remain elusive to the enemy and always burn with pure love for God and for his fellow men, who perish through sins and are saved by the grace of Christ in the Holy Spirit! But how great is our habit of sinning! How strong our earthly attachments! And even while celebrating the Mysteries, we sometimes do not entirely lay aside the cares and attachments of this life, out of long habit, and so the enemy troubles, darkens, and overturns our mind, binds the heart, and takes us into his grievous captivity. And rightly so! Do not indulge in fancies. A priest must be an Angel in the loftiness of his thoughts, in purity of soul and body, in fervor toward God—the Creator of all and the Savior—and toward men, his brothers.

1191. To love God with all one’s heart means to love with all one’s soul meekness, humility, purity and chastity, wisdom, righteousness, mercy, and obedience for God’s sake, and never to do anything contrary to these virtues—that is, not to be proud, not to grow irritated, not to be angry with anyone, not to commit adultery even in the heart; not to violate chastity by a glance, a word, a thought, or a movement of the body; to keep away from every rash and needless word and deed, to shun all falsehood, to hate stinginess and greed, and to flee willfulness and disobedience.

1192. The passions, like cruel taskmasters, keep driving us on, daily compelling us—through our attachment to earthly things—to do what is contrary to the Lord and to our true good, and pleasing to flattering Satan.

1193. I thank You, my Joy, the Lord of glory, that You took my image through Your incarnation from the most pure Virgin and have honored, exalted, and deified humanity; I thank You that You raise me up again from corruption to incorruption, cleanse my defilements, heal my infirmities and diseases, transform my sorrows into joy, turn the narrow straits of sin into the broad room of Your justification—which comes from faith and heartfelt repentance—drive away the darkness of the passions and grant Your spiritual light, take away confusion and send down peace from on high, take away faintheartedness and grant courage with boldness. Glory to Your mercy!

1194. I gaze upon the icons in the church: upon Your icon—my Lord’s—of Your Most Pure Mother, of the holy Angels and Archangels, and upon the faces of the saints, adorned with gold and shining with silver, and I think within myself: how have You honored and adorned our nature, O Creator and Provider of all! With Your light Your saints shine, by Your grace they are holy, having conquered sinfulness and washed away the sinful defilements of flesh and spirit; with Your glory they are glorious, with Your incorruption incorrupt. Glory to You, who have so honored, enlightened, and magnified our nature! Here are Your Apostles and hierarchs, living images of You, the supreme One who passed through the heavens, the Envoy of the Father, the Hierarch and Chief Shepherd; Your goodness, Your wisdom, Your power, spiritual beauty, authority, majesty, holiness shine in them. Here are Your martyrs, who by Your power overcame dreadful temptations, endured fearful torments, and in Your blood whitened the garments of their souls. Here are Your venerable ones, who by fasting, vigil, and prayer received Your wondrous gifts, gifts of healings and of clairvoyance; Your power strengthened them to stand above sin and every demonic wile; Your likeness shines in them like the sun.

1195. In the church—in its arrangement and its parts, in the icons, in the divine service with its reading of the holy Scriptures, its singing, and its rites—there is set down in images, as on a map, in persons, in broad outline, the whole history of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Church, the entire divine dispensation for the salvation of mankind. Majestic is the spectacle of the divine service of our Orthodox Church for those who understand it, who enter into its essence, its spirit, its significance, its meaning!

1196. O lover of pleasure! to what will you attach your love after your death, when you will have no pleasures, and their place is taken by the bitterness of utter deprivation? On what will your incorruptible soul feed?—Pleasures are incompatible with it. O lover of money! to what will you attach the love of your heart, when with death the possession and enjoyment of your money and your various treasures ceases? To the soul, a spiritual being, those treasures will then be of no use; they will be loathsome to it, like poison, like the rust and moth that corroded it during life and estranged it from God, depriving it of the incorruptible treasure—God. O pompous lover of honor, who sought distinctions and honors and loved them more than anything in the world! to what will you attach your love, when death strips off from you every distinction and shows you in all your nakedness and deformity? What will then be the food and life of the incorruptible spirit that estranged itself from God for the sake of the vain honors of this world, and deified itself like the idolaters? So vain is the man subject to the passions—he does not know what he is doing, what deprivation he is preparing for himself, what torment for his senseless passions, for the fact that, having been honored with the image of God, with the calling of a child of God, a friend of God, an heir of the Heavenly Kingdom, a co-heir of Christ, he “was joined to the senseless beasts”, through his own senselessness, “and was made like them” (Ps 48:13) in greed, in voluptuous frenzy, in malice, in envy! Therefore fear to cleave with your soul to anything earthly.

1197. Imagery, or symbolism, is a need of human nature in our present spiritual-sensory condition: it graphically explains to us very much of the spiritual world that we could not know without images and symbols. Hence the Divine Teacher, the Hypostatic Wisdom that created all things, the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ, often instructed people by images or parables; hence, too, in our Orthodox church it is the custom to present much to the sight of Christians in images—for instance, the Lord Himself upon the icon, the Most Pure Theotokos, the Angels and all the saints—so that we may order our life, order all our thoughts, words, and deeds after the pattern of the thoughts, words, and deeds of the Lord and His saints; hence the frequent depiction of the cross, the censing with incense, the lighting of candles and lamps, the entrances and exits from the altar; hence the bows, the bowing of heads, the prostrations to the ground (we have fallen deeply through sin). All this reminds us of various spiritual objects and states. Imagery greatly influences the human soul, its creative or active faculty. Thus, it is said, if a mother during pregnancy often looks upon the face or image of her beloved husband, the infant is born very like the father; or if she looks upon the portrait of a beautiful child, a beautiful infant is born to her; so if a Christian often, with love and reverence, gazes upon the image of the Lord Jesus Christ or of His Most Pure Mother and His saints, then his soul too receives the spiritual features of the dearly beheld face (meekness, humility, mercy, temperance). Oh, if only we gazed more often upon the countenances, and especially upon the life, of the Lord and His saints, how we would be changed, ascending from strength to strength! Thus the smelling of the fragrance of the censer in church or at home reminds us, by analogy, of the fragrance of virtue, and, by contrast, of the stench of sins, and teaches the one attentive to his inner sense to shun the reek of the passions—of intemperance, fornication, malice, envy, pride, despair, and other passions—and to adorn himself with every Christian virtue; the censer reminds us of the words of the Apostle: “we are a fragrance of God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one a savor of death unto death, to the other a savor of life unto life” (2Cor 2:15-16); in like manner the candle or lamp reminds us of spiritual light and fire—for instance, of the words of the Lord: “I am the light that has come into the world”, “that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness” (Jn 12:46), or: “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what would I, if it be already kindled” (Lk 12:49), or: “let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men who wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him at once” (Lk 12:35-36), or: “so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens” (Mt 5:16)—and by their very substance, by their very nature, they teach us things or objects corresponding to spiritual light and fire: for instance, that our hearts may always burn with love for God and neighbor, that we may not allow the passions or the fire of Gehenna to blaze up within us, that by the example of a virtuous life we may give light to others, as a candle gives us light in the affairs of daily life.

1198. It is a natural thing to have an image of Christ, of the Most Pure Theotokos, of the Angels and the saints. First, our nature requires it: we always desire to have before us the image of the one we love, the image of our Benefactor, so that, gazing upon it, we may the more often remember him and his benefactions (and venerate him), just as we ordinarily do with living people, especially those we respect and love. Second, we are created in the image and likeness of God: it is natural for us to desire always to have before our eyes our Prototype, our First Origin, the Lord God, in those forms in which He was pleased Himself to appear to people, so as the more often to remember Him, His perpetual co-presence with us, His mindfulness of us, and to express in visible signs or rites our reverence, thanksgiving, and love toward Him; for we are corporeal, and by our corporeality have need of material images, of material rites (this is surely why the Lord Himself appeared to His favored ones—for instance, in the form of three wayfarers by the oak of Mamre to Abraham; to Isaiah, in the form of a great King seated upon a throne high and lifted up; to the prophet Daniel, in the form of the Ancient of Days and in the form of the Son of Man brought before Him). If a visible image of the invisible God were not needful, then surely He would not have appeared on earth in our flesh, would not have taken the form of a servant; and David says: “seek His face continually” (Ps 104:4). For this same reason we make, keep with us, and honor images of the Most Pure Theotokos, of the Angels and the saints—that is, because they are living images and likenesses of God, and we, gazing upon them, more vividly recall their struggles, virtues, benefactions to us, their fervent love for God, and are ourselves roused to imitate them, to keep watch over ourselves, to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, to glorify their struggles; and thereby we make them our intercessors and advocates before God, for God is pleased to accept the intercession of His friends and faithful servants for the people on whose behalf they plead before Him. Since we are not bodiless spirits, but beings clothed in flesh, having material outlines, a material form, it is natural that we seek an image of invisible beings; and surely, condescending to our weakness, the Lord gave even to the Angels the power to take upon themselves our form and to appear to us (when He is pleased to allow it) in our image—as, for instance, an Archangel appeared to Joshua the son of Nun, to David, to Manoah and his wife, to Zacharias, to the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and to others in the Old and the New Testament. Do we not ourselves prove, in everyday life, the need of our nature, its striving to have images of the persons we love, when we express the wish to have their portraits and make images of ourselves and hang them on the walls or set them in an album, in order often to look upon them and delight in the sight of respected and beloved faces? And this so natural, proper, and God-pleasing thing—the veneration of the holy icons—many Lutherans and Anglicans consider something unnatural, contrary to God, idolatry and heresy; and not only in their homes, but even in their churches they have no icons, and reckon it a sin to have them and to venerate them, whereby they lose exceedingly much for faith and piety; for, having severed the visible bond with the saints, they have thereby broken the invisible bond as well, whereas the Church heavenly and earthly is one body; thus they have severed the bond with the departed also, because they do not pray for them and do not offer sacrifices for their souls—the sacrifices by which the merciful God is well pleased—and thereby show their unbelief in the power of the Church’s prayers for the departed. What sort of church, then, is this—a church that has senselessly and audaciously broken the bond with the heavenly Church triumphant, cut off communion with the departed in prayer, and cut off communion with the Church that confesses the faith of Christ in its primal purity?! Is this the living and holy body of the Church? Can one call a body organized and living—a mere trunk without a head and without arms and without legs, without eyes and without ears? And such a society still proclaims its faith to be a purified, true faith, and shuns the rites of our holy, blameless faith. Is that a purified faith which has rejected the priesthood and the other Mysteries, save baptism and communion—which is, moreover, ineffectual—rejected the veneration of the saints, their relics and icons, fasts, monasticism, prayers for the departed? Is this the gospel faith? is this the Church of Christ and of the Apostles? No, it is a self-made church, composed according to human willfulness, under the influence of human passions and pandering to human passions; it is “the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18); it is a perverted gospel of Christ; it is the corrupting or turning away of Christ’s people to another gospel, of which the Apostle said: “even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you contrary to what we preached to you, let him be anathema” (Gal 1:6,8). This is not a church, but a soul-destroying rending of the body of Christ. And so, the veneration of icons is natural, and just, and God-pleasing, and profitable.

1199. The holy Angels and the holy people of God are our best, kindest, faithful brethren and friends, so often helping us in various circumstances in which none of humankind can help. Since these brethren, who live forever and do us good, are invisible, while we—by our corporeality—wish to have them before our eyes, as though ever present with us, we make images of them, and, looking upon their images, it seems to us that they are with us, and we call upon them in our prayers, knowing that they have great boldness before God and help us in various circumstances. Thus the veneration of icons is exceedingly beneficial for us, in accord with our nature, with sound sense, and with the Holy Scripture itself, for images of the Cherubim were present even in the Old Testament tabernacle of Moses. Icons serve us as a perpetual reminder that the Lord is always with us: “I am with you all the days until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20); that the Most Holy Theotokos is always near to us, as the Foundress of the mind’s edification in the Church, as the Mother by grace of all true Christians; and all true Christians have the image of the Mother of God—their Queen and Mother by grace—in their homes, and abundantly, worthily, and justly adorn it with silver, gold, and precious stones, for there is no one dearer and more honorable to them, after God, than His Most Pure Mother. And both the Lord and His Most Pure Mother themselves ceaselessly testify to us, inwardly and outwardly, by means of miracles, that our true veneration of His saints and of His Mother and of His holy icons is pleasing to Him and, for us, in the highest degree profitable.

1200. The Nativity of Christ.—He has come to earth who in the beginning created us from the earth and breathed His divine breath into us; He has come who gives “to all life and breath and all things” (Act 17:25); He has come who by a single word called forth from non-being into being all things visible and invisible—who by a word commanded there to be birds, fishes, four-footed beasts, insects, every creature that exists under His almighty providence and keeping; He has come whom the countless hosts of Angels ceaselessly serve with fear and joy. And in what abasement! He is born of a poor Virgin, in a cave, wrapped in humble swaddling clothes, laid in a manger! O riches, rank, glory of this world! fall down, prostrate yourselves with humility, with tearful compunction and deep gratitude, before the Savior of mankind, and share your riches with the needy and the poor; do not take pride in your illusory, swiftly vanishing rank: true rank belongs to virtue alone. O glory of this world! know here, at the manger, your vanity. And so, all of you, humble yourselves, all of you fall into the dust before the boundless humility and self-emptying of the Master of all, God, who has come to heal our infirmities, to save us from pride, from vanity, from corruption, from every defilement of sin.

Scripture Index

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Genesis
Genesis 1:3–2017. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.283)
Genesis 1:268. Part One §241-280 (1.277)
Genesis 1:284. Part One §81-120 (1.112)
Genesis 1:3111. Part Two §815-854 (2.13)
Genesis 2:74. Part One §81-120 (1.112)
Genesis 3:198. Part One §241-280 (1.277)
Genesis 6:34. Part One §81-120 (1.113)
Genesis 39:217. Part One §201-240 (1.215)
Exodus
Exodus 20:1–177. Part One §201-240 (1.232)
Exodus 20:54. Part One §81-120 (1.84)
Exodus 33:1913. Part Two §895-934 (2.111)
Exodus 33:2320. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.375)
Leviticus
Leviticus 26:1215. Part Two §975-1014 (2.181)
Numbers
Numbers 6:2714. Part Two §935-974 (2.162)
Numbers 23:194. Part One §81-120 (1.84)
Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 32:3515. Part Two §975-1014 (2.185)

2 Samuel
2 Samuel 6:166. Part One §161-200 (1.189)
Job

Job 1:213. Part One §41-80 (1.66); 9. Part One §281-300 (1.299)

Job 38:44. Part One §81-120 (1.120)
Psalms
Psalms 5:52. Part One §1-40 (1.11)
Psalms 7:104. Part One §81-120 (1.106)
Psalms 11:713. Part Two §895-934 (2.87)
Psalms 13:19. Part One §281-300 (1.294)
Psalms 13:311. Part Two §815-854 (2.25)
Psalms 13:55. Part One §121-160 (1.142)
Psalms 16:152. Part One §1-40 (1.1)
Psalms 18:2–37. Part One §201-240 (1.211)
Psalms 19:517. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.274)
Psalms 24:156. Part One §161-200 (1.199)

Psalms 25:17. Part One §201-240 (1.201); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.319)

Psalms 30:209. Part One §281-300 (1.288)
Psalms 32:64. Part One §81-120 (1.112)
Psalms 32:918. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.313)
Psalms 33:217. Part One §201-240 (1.239)
Psalms 37:416. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.234)
Psalms 37:1418. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.319)
Psalms 38:2–318. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.319)
Psalms 44:815. Part Two §975-1014 (2.191)
Psalms 48:1320. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.385)
Psalms 50:314. Part Two §935-974 (2.132)

Psalms 50:916. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.232); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.332)

Psalms 50:124. Part One §81-120 (1.82); 12. Part Two §855-894 (2.73)

Psalms 54:234. Part One §81-120 (1.106)
Psalms 60:614. Part Two §935-974 (2.159)
Psalms 61:1119. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.329)
Psalms 68:24. Part One §81-120 (1.116)

Psalms 72:25–2614. Part Two §935-974 (2.159); 15. Part Two §975-1014 (2.168); 16. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.216)

Psalms 72:285. Part One §121-160 (1.149); 11. Part Two §815-854 (2.5, 2.7)

Psalms 76:114. Part One §81-120 (1.106)
Psalms 84:96. Part One §161-200 (1.199)
Psalms 85:1016. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.223)
Psalms 89:14–1514. Part Two §935-974 (2.145)
Psalms 91:66. Part One §161-200 (1.180)

Psalms 103:248. Part One §241-280 (1.269); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.283); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.304)

Psalms 104:420. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.387)
Psalms 113:1118. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.305)
Psalms 115:219. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.356)
Psalms 120:17. Part One §201-240 (1.216)
Psalms 122:3–411. Part Two §815-854 (2.32)

Psalms 129:37. Part One §201-240 (1.236); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.264)

Psalms 131:93. Part One §41-80 (1.67)

Psalms 138:66. Part One §161-200 (1.180); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.304)

Psalms 138:77. Part One §201-240 (1.230)

Psalms 142:27. Part One §201-240 (1.236); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.264)

Psalms 142:44. Part One §81-120 (1.82)
Psalms 144:919. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.345)
Psalms 150:68. Part One §241-280 (1.251)
Proverbs
Proverbs 5:224. Part One §81-120 (1.96)

Proverbs 15:32. Part One §1-40 (1.24); 5. Part One §121-160 (1.121)

Proverbs 23:262. Part One §1-40 (1.8)
Song of Songs
Song of Songs 5:26. Part One §161-200 (1.188)
Isaiah
Isaiah 26:126. Part One §161-200 (1.190)
Isaiah 29:1319. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.324)
Isaiah 40:26. Part One §161-200 (1.190)
Isaiah 40:134. Part One §81-120 (1.120)
Isaiah 42:84. Part One §81-120 (1.84)

Isaiah 49:162. Part One §1-40 (1.24); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.263)

Isaiah 55:1117. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.260); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.287); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.335)

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 2:136. Part One §161-200 (1.170); 20. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.374)

Jeremiah 3:1915. Part Two §975-1014 (2.181)
Jeremiah 23:217. Part One §201-240 (1.233)
Jeremiah 32:197. Part One §201-240 (1.230)
Jeremiah 48:1017. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.255)
Ezekiel
Ezekiel 28:1313. Part Two §895-934 (2.109)
Tobit
Tobit 12:915. Part Two §975-1014 (2.184)
Wisdom
Wisdom 1:72. Part One §1-40 (1.35)
Wisdom 3:52. Part One §1-40 (1.14)
Wisdom 11:1719. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.341)
Sirach
Sirach 3:232. Part One §1-40 (1.1)
Sirach 23:278. Part One §241-280 (1.257)
Sirach 50:173. Part One §41-80 (1.62)
Matthew

Matthew 3:27. Part One §201-240 (1.206); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.116)

Matthew 4:417. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.244); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.309); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.359)

Matthew 4:236. Part One §161-200 (1.162)
Matthew 5:813. Part Two §895-934 (2.119)
Matthew 5:1620. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.386)
Matthew 5:368. Part One §241-280 (1.247)
Matthew 5:429. Part One §281-300 (1.284)
Matthew 5:446. Part One §161-200 (1.190)
Matthew 5:46–4712. Part Two §855-894 (2.48)
Matthew 5:4715. Part Two §975-1014 (2.187)
Matthew 5:486. Part One §161-200 (1.194)
Matthew 6:817. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.247)

Matthew 6:1216. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.207); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.328)

Matthew 6:148. Part One §241-280 (1.267)

Matthew 6:14–1519. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.328)

Matthew 6:195. Part One §121-160 (1.145)
Matthew 6:215. Part One §121-160 (1.121)
Matthew 6:236. Part One §161-200 (1.193)

Matthew 6:2411. Part Two §815-854 (2.31); 12. Part Two §855-894 (2.64); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.100, 2.117); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.329)

Matthew 6:305. Part One §121-160 (1.159)

Matthew 6:3312. Part Two §855-894 (2.49); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.90)

Matthew 7:212. Part Two §855-894 (2.61)
Matthew 7:317. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.272)
Matthew 7:511. Part Two §815-854 (2.28)

Matthew 7:72. Part One §1-40 (1.31); 5. Part One §121-160 (1.144)

Matthew 7:7–1117. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.252); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.340)

Matthew 7:7–85. Part One §121-160 (1.134, 1.145)

Matthew 7:9–119. Part One §281-300 (1.294)

Matthew 7:112. Part One §1-40 (1.31); 8. Part One §241-280 (1.270); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.290)

Matthew 7:1216. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.207)

Matthew 7:1618. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.321)

Matthew 7:203. Part One §41-80 (1.69); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.333)

Matthew 7:24–2719. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.358)

Matthew 7:258. Part One §241-280 (1.260)
Matthew 7:2719. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.358)
Matthew 9:282. Part One §1-40 (1.21)
Matthew 9:2918. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.291)
Matthew 10:192. Part One §1-40 (1.13)
Matthew 10:2019. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.326)
Matthew 11:713. Part Two §895-934 (2.103)

Matthew 11:1211. Part Two §815-854 (2.35); 15. Part Two §975-1014 (2.182); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.247, 2.250, 2.274); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.324)

Matthew 11:25–2615. Part Two §975-1014 (2.170)

Matthew 11:277. Part One §201-240 (1.217)

Matthew 11:282. Part One §1-40 (1.19); 6. Part One §161-200 (1.173); 7. Part One §201-240 (1.228); 11. Part Two §815-854 (2.12); 14. Part Two §935-974 (2.158); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.245)

Matthew 11:293. Part One §41-80 (1.62); 9. Part One §281-300 (1.300)

Matthew 11:304. Part One §81-120 (1.86)

Matthew 12:3618. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.306); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.335)

Matthew 13:518. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.295)

Matthew 13:918. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.318)

Matthew 13:4311. Part Two §815-854 (2.6); 16. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.237)

Matthew 15:82. Part One §1-40 (1.8); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.324)

Matthew 15:1912. Part Two §855-894 (2.73)
Matthew 15:282. Part One §1-40 (1.31)
Matthew 16:1811. Part Two §815-854 (2.39)

Matthew 16:2415. Part Two §975-1014 (2.191); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.310)

Matthew 16:2611. Part Two §815-854 (2.17)
Matthew 18:2014. Part Two §935-974 (2.140)
Matthew 19:517. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.263)
Matthew 21:212. Part One §1-40 (1.21)
Matthew 21:222. Part One §1-40 (1.21)
Matthew 22:134. Part One §81-120 (1.96)

Matthew 22:396. Part One §161-200 (1.184); 8. Part One §241-280 (1.272)

Matthew 24:2911. Part Two §815-854 (2.37)
Matthew 24:3517. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.273)
Matthew 25:515. Part Two §975-1014 (2.186)
Matthew 25:2313. Part Two §895-934 (2.90)
Matthew 25:2919. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.345)
Matthew 25:4019. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.343)
Matthew 25:464. Part One §81-120 (1.96)

Matthew 28:203. Part One §41-80 (1.62); 14. Part Two §935-974 (2.130); 20. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.388)

Mark
Mark 4:193. Part One §41-80 (1.67)
Mark 5:343. Part One §41-80 (1.45)
Mark 9:2318. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.291)

Mark 10:2716. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.216); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.289, 2.313)

Mark 11:246. Part One §161-200 (1.191); 14. Part Two §935-974 (2.150)

Mark 12:30–317. Part One §201-240 (1.232); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.85)

Mark 12:3119. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.328)
Luke
Luke 1:357. Part One §201-240 (1.217)

Luke 1:3718. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.285, 2.287); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.335)

Luke 2:357. Part One §201-240 (1.205); 9. Part One §281-300 (1.299)

Luke 4:2311. Part Two §815-854 (2.28)

Luke 4:247. Part One §201-240 (1.221)

Luke 6:2512. Part Two §855-894 (2.75); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.251)

Luke 6:3019. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.354)
Luke 6:3116. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.207)
Luke 6:3215. Part Two §975-1014 (2.187)
Luke 6:3519. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.355)
Luke 7:85. Part One §121-160 (1.159)
Luke 8:354. Part One §81-120 (1.86)
Luke 9:623. Part One §41-80 (1.41)
Luke 10:214. Part One §81-120 (1.93)
Luke 10:2713. Part Two §895-934 (2.85)
Luke 12:1613. Part Two §895-934 (2.111)
Luke 12:262. Part One §1-40 (1.17)
Luke 12:288. Part One §241-280 (1.247)
Luke 12:3320. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.378)

Luke 12:35–3620. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.368, 2.386)

Luke 12:4916. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.232); 20. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.386)

Luke 14:2615. Part Two §975-1014 (2.191)
Luke 15:189. Part One §281-300 (1.291)
Luke 16:104. Part One §81-120 (1.99)
Luke 17:214. Part One §81-120 (1.102)
Luke 18:2–617. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.247)
Luke 18:84. Part One §81-120 (1.113)
Luke 18:1611. Part Two §815-854 (2.14)
Luke 21:1813. Part Two §895-934 (2.123)
Luke 21:1919. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.358)

Luke 21:3412. Part Two §855-894 (2.76); 15. Part Two §975-1014 (2.169); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.279)

Luke 22:3112. Part Two §855-894 (2.78)
Luke 23:3414. Part Two §935-974 (2.148)
John

John 1:32. Part One §1-40 (1.21, 1.31); 3. Part One §41-80 (1.77)

John 1:92. Part One §1-40 (1.25); 4. Part One §81-120 (1.93); 6. Part One §161-200 (1.169, 1.184); 8. Part One §241-280 (1.242)

John 1:1311. Part Two §815-854 (2.5)

John 3:82. Part One §1-40 (1.10); 4. Part One §81-120 (1.112); 7. Part One §201-240 (1.238); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.331)

John 3:1619. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.332)
John 3:16–176. Part One §161-200 (1.180)
John 4:13–142. Part One §1-40 (1.1)
John 4:247. Part One §201-240 (1.207, 1.210)
John 4:346. Part One §161-200 (1.164)
John 6:536. Part One §161-200 (1.193)
John 6:5617. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.263)

John 6:632. Part One §1-40 (1.3); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.324)

John 7:387. Part One §201-240 (1.219); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.261)

John 8:3719. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.324)
John 8:3913. Part Two §895-934 (2.92)
John 8:5517. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.245)
John 10:127. Part One §201-240 (1.233)
John 12:356. Part One §161-200 (1.161)

John 12:4612. Part Two §855-894 (2.49); 20. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.386)

John 13:3514. Part Two §935-974 (2.140)

John 14:211. Part Two §815-854 (2.14)

John 14:66. Part One §161-200 (1.200); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.245); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.326, 2.357)

John 14:137. Part One §201-240 (1.235)
John 14:2314. Part Two §935-974 (2.125)
John 14:23–2415. Part Two §975-1014 (2.191)
John 14:2711. Part Two §815-854 (2.12)

John 15:511. Part Two §815-854 (2.13); 12. Part Two §855-894 (2.62, 2.72)

John 15:77. Part One §201-240 (1.235)

John 15:1315. Part Two §975-1014 (2.171); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.322)

John 16:217. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.256)
John 16:77. Part One §201-240 (1.217)
John 16:2217. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.245)
John 17:316. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.220)
John 17:419. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.337)
John 17:1615. Part Two §975-1014 (2.174)
John 17:176. Part One §161-200 (1.200)

John 17:217. Part One §201-240 (1.222); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.106)

John 17:228. Part One §241-280 (1.250)
John 19:26–2713. Part Two §895-934 (2.114)
Acts
Acts 4:327. Part One §201-240 (1.233)
Acts 9:1–28. Part One §241-280 (1.249)
Acts 17:2520. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.389)

Acts 17:267. Part One §201-240 (1.222); 8. Part One §241-280 (1.272)

Acts 17:288. Part One §241-280 (1.259)
Acts 20:3117. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.282)
Acts 26:147. Part One §201-240 (1.225)
Romans
Romans 1:1820. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.387)
Romans 1:202. Part One §1-40 (1.40)
Romans 1:236. Part One §161-200 (1.194)
Romans 2:55. Part One §121-160 (1.124)
Romans 2:1118. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.297)
Romans 3:46. Part One §161-200 (1.194)
Romans 3:817. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.251)
Romans 3:1211. Part Two §815-854 (2.25)
Romans 3:238. Part One §241-280 (1.267)

Romans 4:172. Part One §1-40 (1.21); 3. Part One §41-80 (1.61)

Romans 5:518. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.321)
Romans 7:1818. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.301)
Romans 7:1916. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.207)

Romans 8:66. Part One §161-200 (1.193); 7. Part One §201-240 (1.204)

Romans 8:98. Part One §241-280 (1.243)

Romans 8:16–1716. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.238)

Romans 8:264. Part One §81-120 (1.92); 14. Part Two §935-974 (2.126); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.287); 20. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.364)

Romans 8:327. Part One §201-240 (1.235)
Romans 8:3513. Part Two §895-934 (2.118)
Romans 9:1513. Part Two §895-934 (2.111)
Romans 10:814. Part Two §935-974 (2.134)
Romans 10:8–919. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.361)
Romans 12:819. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.343)
Romans 12:1119. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.358)
Romans 12:1915. Part Two §975-1014 (2.185)

Romans 12:2115. Part Two §975-1014 (2.180, 2.185)

Romans 13:1418. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.286)

Romans 14:44. Part One §81-120 (1.81); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.272); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.328)

Romans 14:175. Part One §121-160 (1.145); 6. Part One §161-200 (1.193); 15. Part Two §975-1014 (2.169)

Romans 15:17. Part One §201-240 (1.206)

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2:915. Part Two §975-1014 (2.202)

1 Corinthians 2:168. Part One §241-280 (1.245)

1 Corinthians 3:913. Part Two §895-934 (2.115); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.255)

1 Corinthians 3:1614. Part Two §935-974 (2.125)

1 Corinthians 3:1711. Part Two §815-854 (2.29)

1 Corinthians 4:117. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.255)

1 Corinthians 4:76. Part One §161-200 (1.175); 11. Part Two §815-854 (2.13)

1 Corinthians 6:1315. Part Two §975-1014 (2.169)

1 Corinthians 6:173. Part One §41-80 (1.62); 5. Part One §121-160 (1.129); 8. Part One §241-280 (1.252); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.107); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.289)

1 Corinthians 6:198. Part One §241-280 (1.244)

1 Corinthians 7:3112. Part Two §855-894 (2.67)

1 Corinthians 9:98. Part One §241-280 (1.251)

1 Corinthians 10:133. Part One §41-80 (1.62)

1 Corinthians 10:178. Part One §241-280 (1.272)

1 Corinthians 10:3114. Part Two §935-974 (2.129); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.306)

1 Corinthians 12:64. Part One §81-120 (1.95)

1 Corinthians 13:4–816. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.207); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.325)

1 Corinthians 13:717. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.272)

1 Corinthians 13:819. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.349)

1 Corinthians 13:917. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.271)

1 Corinthians 14:16. Part One §161-200 (1.184)

1 Corinthians 15:5519. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.334)

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:914. Part Two §935-974 (2.150)

2 Corinthians 1:207. Part One §201-240 (1.220)

2 Corinthians 2:1514. Part Two §935-974 (2.160)

2 Corinthians 2:15–1620. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.386)

2 Corinthians 3:52. Part One §1-40 (1.13); 3. Part One §41-80 (1.42)

2 Corinthians 4:416. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.229)

2 Corinthians 4:1817. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.258)

2 Corinthians 6:11–128. Part One §241-280 (1.249)

2 Corinthians 6:1417. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.280)

2 Corinthians 9:75. Part One §121-160 (1.160)

2 Corinthians 11:1415. Part Two §975-1014 (2.186)

2 Corinthians 13:54. Part One §81-120 (1.91); 8. Part One §241-280 (1.244)

Galatians
Galatians 3:2712. Part Two §855-894 (2.49)
Galatians 4:619. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.326)

Galatians 5:246. Part One §161-200 (1.184); 11. Part Two §815-854 (2.31); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.122)

Galatians 6:1–211. Part Two §815-854 (2.16)
Ephesians
Ephesians 1:185. Part One §121-160 (1.136)
Ephesians 2:26. Part One §161-200 (1.176)
Ephesians 2:82. Part One §1-40 (1.31)
Ephesians 2:917. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.270)

Ephesians 4:37. Part One §201-240 (1.233); 20. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.373)

Ephesians 4:258. Part One §241-280 (1.272); 9. Part One §281-300 (1.284); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.254); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.297, 2.303)

Ephesians 5:146. Part One §161-200 (1.188)
Ephesians 5:304. Part One §81-120 (1.118)
Philippians

Philippians 2:132. Part One §1-40 (1.13); 7. Part One §201-240 (1.215); 8. Part One §241-280 (1.259)

Philippians 3:88. Part One §241-280 (1.275)

Philippians 3:2011. Part Two §815-854 (2.14); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.93)

Philippians 4:66. Part One §161-200 (1.172)
Philippians 4:78. Part One §241-280 (1.279)
Philippians 4:86. Part One §161-200 (1.193)

Philippians 4:1119. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.351)

Colossians
Colossians 1:188. Part One §241-280 (1.245)
Colossians 2:98. Part One §241-280 (1.241)
Colossians 3:1–211. Part Two §815-854 (2.14)
Colossians 4:619. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.335)
1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 5:186. Part One §161-200 (1.172)

1 Thessalonians 5:199. Part One §281-300 (1.283)

1 Timothy
1 Timothy 2:42. Part One §1-40 (1.32)
1 Timothy 2:919. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.351)

1 Timothy 3:916. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.226); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.286)

1 Timothy 3:1514. Part Two §935-974 (2.158); 19. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.356)

1 Timothy 6:815. Part Two §975-1014 (2.188)
1 Timothy 6:2018. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.314)
2 Timothy
2 Timothy 2:1913. Part Two §895-934 (2.88)
2 Timothy 2:2518. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.298)
2 Timothy 3:166. Part One §161-200 (1.200)
Philemon
Philemon 1:128. Part One §241-280 (1.249)
Hebrews

Hebrews 1:35. Part One §121-160 (1.150); 16. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.223); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.244, 2.263); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.313)

Hebrews 2:147. Part One §201-240 (1.223)
Hebrews 4:915. Part Two §975-1014 (2.183)
Hebrews 4:122. Part One §1-40 (1.1)
Hebrews 5:47. Part One §201-240 (1.233)
Hebrews 9:273. Part One §41-80 (1.51)

Hebrews 12:616. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.231); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.262)

Hebrews 12:1116. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.231)
Hebrews 12:2914. Part Two §935-974 (2.160)
Hebrews 13:811. Part Two §815-854 (2.33)
Hebrews 13:1618. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.312)
James
James 1:619. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.360)
James 1:6–82. Part One §1-40 (1.21)
James 1:1718. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.297)
James 1:209. Part One §281-300 (1.300)

James 4:411. Part Two §815-854 (2.31); 13. Part Two §895-934 (2.93)

James 4:93. Part One §41-80 (1.68)
James 5:512. Part Two §855-894 (2.75)
James 5:1619. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.360)
1 Peter
1 Peter 1:419. Part Two §1135-1174 (2.343)
1 Peter 4:117. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.262)
1 Peter 4:718. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.323)
1 Peter 5:718. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.293)

1 Peter 5:85. Part One §121-160 (1.131); 7. Part One §201-240 (1.219)

2 Peter

2 Peter 1:316. Part Two §1015-1054 (2.235); 18. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.292)

2 Peter 2:44. Part One §81-120 (1.89)
1 John
1 John 1:77. Part One §201-240 (1.235)
1 John 1:817. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.272)
1 John 1:102. Part One §1-40 (1.31)

1 John 2:25. Part One §121-160 (1.155); 7. Part One §201-240 (1.235)

1 John 2:15–1613. Part Two §895-934 (2.93)

1 John 2:15–1711. Part Two §815-854 (2.31)

1 John 2:1720. Part Two §1175-1200 (2.367, 2.369)

1 John 3:1618. Part Two §1095-1134 (2.322)
1 John 3:207. Part One §201-240 (1.240)
1 John 3:216. Part One §161-200 (1.196)
1 John 4:48. Part One §241-280 (1.264)
1 John 4:97. Part One §201-240 (1.234)

1 John 4:164. Part One §81-120 (1.102); 6. Part One §161-200 (1.184); 17. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.246)

1 John 5:67. Part One §201-240 (1.225)

1 John 5:195. Part One §121-160 (1.143); 15. Part Two §975-1014 (2.177)

Jude
Jude 1:66. Part One §161-200 (1.172)
Revelation

Revelation 3:1617. Part Two §1055-1094 (2.263)

Revelation 12:913. Part Two §895-934 (2.109)

Revelation 13:157. Part One §201-240 (1.223)

The Author: Saint John of Kronstadt

Saint John of Kronstadt (1829–1908) was a Russian Orthodox archpriest, pastor, and spiritual writer, and one of the most beloved and influential figures of the late Russian Church. A married parish priest rather than a monk or a bishop, he became renowned across the whole empire for his fervent celebration of the Divine Liturgy, his ministry of prayer and healing, and his tireless charity among the poor of Kronstadt.

He was born Ioann Ilyich Sergiev to a poor clerical family in the far north of Russia, in the village of Sura in the Arkhangelsk province. He was educated at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, and in 1855 was ordained to serve at Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in Kronstadt, the naval town near the capital, where he would remain for more than half a century. He gave himself to the destitute of the town, founding the House of Diligence to give work and dignity to the poor, and thousands sought him out for confession, counsel, and prayer.

He is best remembered for his spiritual masterwork My Life in Christ, a collection of reflections drawn from his diaries on prayer, repentance, and the Eucharist, marked throughout by a vivid sense of the reality of God and of the Church’s Mysteries. His many sermons, catechetical talks, and later diaries—among them A Living Ear of Wheat and his Lenten preaching—extend the same ardent, experiential piety, and everywhere his eucharistic realism is stated without reserve.

He reposed in 1908 and was mourned throughout Russia. He was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1964 and by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1990, and is commemorated on 20 December and on 1 June, the day of his glorification. His writings remain a standard of modern Orthodox spiritual life.

Colophon

My Life in Christ
by John of Kronstadt.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The cover features
The Agony in the Garden
by Wilhelm Kotarbiński (Polish-Russian, 1848–1921), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Introduction

- Part One

- Part One §1-40
- Part One §41-80
- Part One §81-120
- Part One §121-160
- Part One §161-200
- Part One §201-240
- Part One §241-280
- Part One §281-300

- Part Two

- Part Two §815-854
- Part Two §855-894
- Part Two §895-934
- Part Two §935-974
- Part Two §975-1014
- Part Two §1015-1054
- Part Two §1055-1094
- Part Two §1095-1134
- Part Two §1135-1174
- Part Two §1175-1200

- Scripture Index
- The Author: Saint John of Kronstadt
- Colophon